Duplomatic
by Sleeping Bag
Summary: Alternate Title: Ravens, Ravens, Everywhere. Raven is accidentally duplicated, but the duplicates don't seem to be EXACTLY like her...Early chapters are kind of funny, but drama & suspense will show up in later ones. Rated for safety.
1. Doomed!

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. There. I said it. Now I feel better.)

_-CHAPTER ONE-_

It was just another ordinary morning in the lives of the Teen Titans—that is, Beast Boy was running screaming through the halls of Titans Tower. He burst into the living room, paused for a moment to catch his breath, and then ran into the kitchen area and hid behind Cyborg, currently the only other Titan in the room, who was frying some eggs.

"What is it now, grass stain?" he asked, without showing much enthusiasm. He already knew what the answer would be.

_3…2…1…_

"Raven's going to kill me!" Beast Boy cried.

_Ahhh, sweet routine,_ thought Cyborg. "What did you do this time?" he said out loud. "Wait, wait, don't tell me. I don't want to know."

Just then, the door to the living room opened, showing a brief glimpse of a dark blue cloak. Beast Boy squeaked with fright and dived under the sofa.

"Don't tell her I'm here!" he said in a stage whisper.

Raven stepped into the room, paused as she caught sight of a quivering sneaker sticking out from under the sofa, then made her way to the kitchen to make herself some tea.

"Beast Boy's under the couch," said Cyborg. There was a thump from under the couch, followed by some muffled cursing.

"I know," said Raven. She continued to make her tea. Apparently, it was quite an absorbing process.

Beast Boy slunk out from under the sofa, rubbing his head gingerly, and tried desperately to sneak out of the room without being noticed. This was a very difficult task, largely due to the severe lack of any sort of cover whatsoever between him and the door. However, Raven didn't seem to be moving, so he managed to make it to the door and bolt down the hall.

"He's making a break for it, you know," said Cyborg.

"Shhh," Raven said. "Tea now, vengeance later."

"Oh, right," said Cyborg. "Good luck with that."

**ooo**

Robin was busy studying reports of a recent string of thefts in the technology district of Jump City when there was a frantic knock at his door. He sighed, made sure everything on his desk was in order so he could return to his study later, and opened his door to reveal a very worried looking Beast Boy. There was, however, a glimmer of hope in the small green boy's eyes.

"Robin! Quick! Have we ever fought a bad guy who used some kind of amnesia ray or something?" he said, with not just a little desperation in his voice.

"What?"

"Just answer the question, man!"

Robin thought for a moment.

"Oh, there was that guy three months ago," he said. "Called himself Dr. Forgetto, Master of Memory, or something like that."

"Great, great, now here's the _really_ important part," said Beast Boy. "Do you have his amnesia ray in the evidence room?"

"Of course," said Robin. Hope sprang into full bloom on Beast Boy's face.

"But," Robin continued, "it was damaged when we brought him in, so it doesn't work anymore." Beast Boy's face fell.

"You did something to piss off Raven again, huh?" Robin said.

"Piss her off? She's _way_ more than pissed off this time!" Beast Boy said. "She's been after me all day!"

_Cut to Raven, sitting quietly in her room reading a book entitled "Paranoia: How it Can Work for You", then cut back to Beast Boy and Robin._

"Well, sorry, but I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and just apologize to her," Robin said, and closed his door.

"Oh, man…I am so dead," muttered Beast Boy as he wandered back down the hall.

**ooo**

Beast Boy knocked on Starfire's door next.

"Star?" he said, trying to be as quiet as possible while still making himself heard. "Are you in there?"

"One moment please!" Starfire called from inside. After precisely one moment, she opened her door.

"Beast Boy, my friend!" she said, a sunny smile on her face. "Is there something that you wish of me?" Beast Boy grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, yeah, Star, could you, um, hide me for, I don't know, a few days or something?" he asked. "I could stay in your closet, and I swear I'll be quiet."

"Oh, this is to avoid Friend Raven's wrath, is it not?" said Starfire, not losing an iota of her cheerful disposition. "Unfortunately, I fear that she has already instructed me not to interfere in the dispensation of her righteous fury."

"Oh," said the crestfallen Beast Boy. "She told you what I did, huh?"

"Yes, she is quite angry," said Starfire. A puzzled look crossed her face. "I must admit, though, that I do not fully understand why your actions have aroused her ire so. I myself find the aroma of rotting eggs quite soothing."

"Uhhh, yeah, Raven probably doesn't though," said Beast Boy. "Thanks anyways, I guess."

"Oh, there is not a large agreement," said Starfire, her bright smile returning. Beast Boy considered this statement for a moment—he had known Starfire for some time now, but some aspects of Starspeak still confused him.

"Um. Do you mean 'No big deal'?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, of course! My apologies," said Starfire. Her smile widened.

"Okay, I'll, uhhh, see you later then," said Beast Boy.

"Yes, indeed! Goodbye now," said Starfire. She closed her door, and once again Beast Boy was left to his fate.

**ooo**

Beast Boy was doomed, and he knew it. He had been backed into a corner—how could he have been so stupid? Raven was advancing on him, slowly, and although her expression was unreadable, he got the distinct impression that she was enjoying his fear.

"Hey, now, Raven, don't do anything you'll regret later," he said. His eyes darted back and forth, searching vainly for some way to escape the inevitable. Raven continued to move closer.

"Come on, Raven, I'm your friend, your comrade!" Beast Boy said, desperate now. "You don't want to do this!"

Raven was now only a few feet away. She opened her mouth to say something. Beast Boy cowered in her shadow.

Then, the alarm went off.

Robin's voice blared over the intercom. "Titans! Trouble!"

Raven looked away for a moment, then turned her gaze back onto Beast Boy.

"We'll finish this later," she said, and floated away. Beast Boy sighed with relief, and made his way to the living room, where the others would be assembling, making sure to stay well behind Raven.

_-END CHAPTER ONE-_

**Author's Note:** Nevermore is one of my favourite episodes. The interaction between Cyborg, Beast Boy, and the various aspects of Raven's personality is great. I would have liked to see more interaction between the aspects themselves, though (maybe that appears in season 4 or something, but I haven't seen it yet—curse you, slow Canadian TV networks!). Anyway, it was that thought that led me to the idea for this story. I know it doesn't look like it has anything to do with Raven's divided personality yet, but trust me, it will. Oh, yes, it will. Muwahahahaaa! Ahem.

Yeah, so read and review, etc. etc. Serious criticism is always welcome, flames will be made fun of, and so on.


	2. Multiple Gary

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, and Multiple Gary is just a bad ripoff of Multiple Santa from The Tick, except with a duplication gun instead of just electrocuting himself. You kind of have to see the episode for that to make sense.)

_-CHAPTER TWO-_

Everett Small, Manager of the Theoretical Gadgetry Division of Technotron Engineering, Incorporated, was hiding under his desk in the dark, shaking with fear. He gibbered a little, despite his conscious mind's continuing insistence that he had to remain absolutely silent if he wanted to survive this ordeal. The ordeal in question, or rather the cause of said ordeal, pushed open the door to Small's darkened office and stepped inside.

"Come on, now, Mr. Small," said the other man, still cloaked in shadows. "I know you're in here." The man's voice was outwardly calm, but, if someone were to listen closely, they might hear a slight edge to it. Small, deep in the grips of adrenaline, was currently listening closely to everything, and _he_ certainly heard it.

The other man flipped the light switch, and the fluorescent ceiling lights in the office flickered into life. Now that the man was fully visible, it would have come as a surprise to a casual observer that he could be the source of Everett Small's terror. He was, in a word, average. Painfully so, in fact. He looked to be middle-aged, was of average height, with an average build, and had no particularly notable physical features. He had short, brown hair that was neither dark nor light, brown eyes, and thin wire-rimmed glasses. He looked like he could have been a librarian. His clothing, however, was quite strange; it looked like a feeble and misguided attempt at constructing an imposing supervillain costume using a rather ill-fitting jogging outfit as a starting point. It had a short, poorly made cape, and plastic "armour" plates which looked like they had been attached with a glue gun. They probably had.

"Really, Mr. Small, do you think I didn't see you run in here?" the man asked. "Why don't you make this easier for both of us and stop hiding? Under your desk is really the only possible hiding place in here, anyway."

Small whimpered. The man casually walked up and leaned nonchalantly on the desk.

"You know, I never was able to thank you properly for firing me, Small," he continued, in a conversational tone that nevertheless lost none of its edge. "Fifteen years I worked for this company; I gave the best years of my life to Technotron. I was one of the best engineers you had, too. But did any of that matter to a small-minded management fat-cat like you? No, of course not." The man moved around the desk and poked his head under to speak directly to Small. He smiled nastily.

"Well, then," he said, dropping all pretense of congeniality. "Let us consider this my thanks to you, shall we?" He straightened up.

"I will destroy you and this company with my newest invention, and you will wish that you had never fired such a talented engineer as me, Gary P. Tucker!" the man announced. Mr. Small screamed in fear.

Before the man called Gary Tucker could act, the door to Small's office was knocked off its hinges and flew across the room. Tucker turned to see a boy dressed in red and green, with a black and yellow cape, standing in the doorway.

"Maybe you should have just sent a card or something," said Robin. Tucker snarled with rage and hurled a chair at him, but Robin easily avoided it.

"Titans! _GO!_"

As one, the other Titans crashed through the thin interior walls of the office and arrayed themselves for battle.

"Give up," said Robin. "You don't stand a chance against us." Gary Tucker laughed, and jumped up on the desk.

"Oh, you are certainly right," he said. "You Teen Titans can easily beat just Gary. But you can't beat…_Multiple Gary!_"

As if on cue, dozens of other men suddenly appeared around the Titans, coming out of hiding amongst the cubicles that surrounded Mr. Small's corner office. And every single one of them looked _exactly_ like Gary.

"Whoa," said Beast Boy. "That's some kind of fan club you've got there."

"Stupid boy!" said Multiple Gary, gloating. "They are not some bourgeois fan club! They are exact duplicates of me, made with this, the Tucker Duplomatic, patent pending!" He indicated a device holstered on his belt that looked suspiciously like a ray gun.

"What is it with supervillains and ray guns?" Cyborg wondered aloud.

"Bourgeois?" said Raven, a quizzical expression on her face. "Do people really still say use that word?"

"Now is not the time to discuss ray gun fetishes or applied linguistics, people!" yelled Robin. "We have to take this guy down, now!"

"Don't worry, guys, I've got this one," said Beast Boy. He strode confidently up to the crowd of Garys. "Okay, which of you guys is the best?" he said. They all looked at each other.

"Uhhh…who cares?" said one of the Garys.

"Yeah, why should that matter?" said one of the others. There was a general nodding and murmuring of assent amongst the other clones.

"Damn. It worked before," said Beast Boy.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. There's one thing to be said for Beast Boy's plans: even if they don't work, the resulting cognitive dissonance can usually buy a bit of time.

"Titans! _GO!_" shouted Robin, and dove headlong into a cluster of Garys. The other Titans quickly followed suit. Multiple Gary just laughed.

"You can't beat my army of duplicates, Titans!" he called. "For every one you defeat, ten more will rise in his place!" He demonstrated his point by firing the Duplomatic at one of the Garys. There was a brief flash of light, and then there were no less than ten Garys standing where only the one had been before. Multiple Gary laughed again.

The battle continued for several minutes, and the Titans were not doing very well. Garys were dropping like flies, but with Multiple Gary occasionally boosting their numbers with the Duplomatic it looked like the Titans would soon be overwhelmed. Robin realized this, and swore. He had to regain control of the situation, but how? Then realization dawned.

"Titans, change of plans!" he called, straining to make himself heard over the noise of the fighting. "I'm going after the original! Watch my back!"

"What?" said Multiple Gary. He shrieked as Robin cannoned into him, knocking him off his perch on the desk.

_I have to get that Duplomatic thing away from him,_ thought Robin as he struggled with Multiple Gary. _That way, he won't be able to reinforce his clones, and it's only a matter of time before we beat them._

Multiple Gary was fueled by desperation as he fought with Robin, but the Boy Wonder had years of martial arts training and quickly gained the advantage. Managing to get Multiple Gary into a sleeper hold, Robin risked a quick glance at the other Titans. They were tired, and were falling back before the horde of remaining Garys. He had to do something, and fast. He looked at the Duplomatic, still held by the struggling villain, and noticed a recessed button on the top of the gun labeled "Delete Duplicates".

_I guess this is my lucky day,_ thought Robin, and he reached out and pressed the button.

All around him, the Garys paused, went cross-eyed, and disappeared unceremoniously. Now that their foes were gone, the other Titans picked their separate ways across the wreckage of cubicles and towards Robin. Robin sighed with relief, and relaxed a bit.

Realizing that his captor had lowered his guard, Multiple Gary kicked viciously at Robin's shins. Robin howled in pain and released the villain, who rolled away and stood up facing him from across the room.

"Ha! You may have defeated my duplicates this time, Titans, but I still have the Duplomatic!" he taunted, brandishing the gun. "I can make more duplicates, many more! Starting now!"

He aimed the Duplomatic at his chest and was about to pull the trigger when Robin once again cannoned into him. As the two of them struggled for control of the Duplomatic, Multiple Gary fired wildly. The other Titans dived for cover as shots from the duplication ray zipped past them. Multiple Gary was unable to hit himself even once, though, and he was soon overpowered. Robin stood over the defeated villain and, with a look of grim satisfaction on his face, snapped the Duplomatic in half over his knee.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked, still watching Multiple Gary closely. He didn't want him escaping again.

"I'm fine," said Beast Boy, picking himself up from behind the ruins of a cubicle.

"Me too," said Cyborg, putting down the section of cubicle wall that he had been using as a shield.

"I am also undamaged," piped up Starfire, as she floated down from her hideout above the ceiling tiles.

There was a pause.

"Raven, are you okay?" asked Robin.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Raven replied, in full stereo. The other Titans stopped dead, and slowly turned around.

Nearly a dozen Ravens were getting up from amongst the cubicle ruins, dusting themselves off and looking irritable.

"Oh, boy," said Cyborg. Robin and Starfire just gaped.

Beast Boy, on the other hand, fainted dead away.

_-END CHAPTER TWO-_

**Author's Note:** I think that Beast Boy's reaction is understandable, given the circumstances (remember that Raven was just about to exact her revenge upon him for his latest prank at the end of Chapter One). Ha ha! Spontaneous unconsciousness is hilarious. I really need to get out more, don't I?

Anyway, be patient. I swear this is all going somewhere. And no, Multiple Gary doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the story. I think I might actually be updating a hell of a lot more often than I originally thought, since I've already got a four chapter buffer in just a few days. If only I could focus this kind of energy on what I'm _supposed_ to be doing.

Read and review, blah blah blah.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: Like I said, maybe updating a hell of a lot more often than I thought. Hope I don't disappoint!

dramaqueensandflannels: Same as above, same as above. Enjoy!

Regrem Erutaerc: Yup, it's an emotions story. You'll have to wait for Chapter Three to see what I'm talking about, though.

Lonelyfairy: Sorry, but I'm not going to say what it was that Beast Boy did. You'll have to use your imagination—that's the point. That, and I have the feeling that I could never come up with something sick and twisted enough to warrant Raven's reaction. Normally it's just a smack or something, but this time she actually _researched_ her revenge. Anyway, enjoy Chapter Two.


	3. Multiple Raven

(Disclaimer: The Teen Titans do not belong to me. Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it. Back off.)

_-CHAPTER THREE-_

If that morning had been business as usual in Titans Tower, then that evening certainly wasn't. For one thing, there was usually only one Raven. Now, thanks to the Duplomatic (patent pending), there were ten. The sheer amount of sullen silence on the way back to the Tower had been nearly overwhelming. This had been broken, however, when Robin suggested that they all get some rest and deal with this new problem in the morning, prompting every last one of the Ravens to head towards the bedroom that, historically, only one girl had ever inhabited. This resulted in an argument over who should get the room, since none of them wanted to share. That had been twenty minutes ago, and what had begun as mere bickering had since become a free-for-all shouting match, with telekinetic effects thrown in for good measure. The other Titans cowered in fear, aside from Beast Boy, who had fainted again.

Finally, Robin had had enough, and summoned the courage to deal with the veritable crowd of enraged half-demons.

"That's it!" he yelled. The Ravens stopped in their tracks and looked at him.

"_NONE_ of you sleep in Raven's room tonight!" Robin said. "You can all stay in the guest rooms until we sort this out tomorrow."

"But…" began several of the Ravens at once.

"No! No buts!" interrupted Robin. "I mean it! We'll figure this out tomorrow."

"But there's only three guest rooms, and ten of us!" said another group of Ravens.

"So?" said Robin. "Each guest room can hold three of you, so that only leaves one left. She can sleep on the couch."

"What?" said all the Ravens at once. "There's no way I'm sleeping on the couch! Can't you just get rid of all the duplicates like you did when we were fighting Multiple Gary?"

"Sorry, no. The Duplomatic is broken, so that's not an option. So draw straws or something for who gets the couch—I don't care, just sort it out," said Robin.

"Unacceptable!" cried Starfire, the only other Titan not currently hiding or passed out. "Friend Raven shall not sleep upon the couch tonight, nor shall any of her doppelgangers. I shall offer to share my room with the remaining Raven."

The Ravens murmured amongst themselves for a moment. Raven liked Starfire in small doses, but to spend an entire night with the perpetually cheerful alien might be a bit much. As one unit, nine of the Ravens shoved the other one forward.

"She'll stay with Starfire," they said in unison.

"Hey!" cried the scapegoat, but her protests were cut short by Starfire rushing up and embracing her.

"Wonderful! Let us go prepare a second sleeping pad in my room, Friend One-of-the-Ravens!" Starfire squealed with delight and dragged the unlucky Raven away.

"I swear I'll get you guys for this!" she said as she was dragged out of the room.

"Right, so now that that's settled, everyone go to bed," said Robin. The remaining Ravens grumbled to themselves, but filed out of the room nevertheless. Robin turned to the couch, which Cyborg was still hiding behind.

"You can come out now," he said. "Oh, and see if you can find some way to wake Beast Boy up."

**ooo**

The next morning, Beast Boy woke early and hesitantly made his way to the living room to make himself some breakfast. He wanted to avoid any and all contact with the Ravens, although given the sheer number of them he knew that would be next to impossible. However, considering what was at stake, that is, how they would kill him, slowly, _ten times over_, he had to at least try.

As he opened the door to the living room, he saw one of the Ravens sitting at the kitchen table. Beast Boy quickly turned around, but his stomach apparently sensed his wavering determination to fill it, and growled loudly.

"Okay, okay," he said to his stomach, and slowly walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He hoped desperately that Raven had forgotten about his last prank, or at least that this particular one had. Beast Boy watched the seated Raven, prepared to run if she made any sudden moves, but she was totally absorbed in something she was writing on a pad of paper. He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong about her, but his terror made it difficult for him to put his finger on it. Suddenly, it hit him.

She was wearing yellow.

_Whoa. I really _am_ out of it,_ Beast Boy thought. He did his best to make himself something to eat as quickly as possible—as much as it was a nice change to see Raven wearing something other than her usual dark blue cloak, he was pretty sure that it was also a sign that she had finally snapped.

"Beast Boy," she said, her voice totally devoid of emotion. Beast Boy jumped. The yellow-clad Raven looked up at him, revealing that she was also wearing a pair of wire-framed glasses. They made her look intelligent without seeming overly nerdy, and were actually quite tasteful.

"Please restrain your fear at least a little," she continued. "I am an empath, and it is distracting me."

"Uhhh…okay," said Beast Boy. His curiosity managed to overpower his fear, and he looked over her shoulder at what she was working on. It looked suspiciously like math homework that had been assigned by a Greek madman, and the symbols made Beast Boy's head spin.

"So, um, what's that you're working on?" he asked as he tried to keep the brief glimpse of higher math from unscrewing his head.

"Oh, I'm just trying to derive the theory behind the workings of the Duplomatic," she replied. "It's actually quite simple, although not entirely admissible of an elegant proof."

Beast Boy reeled, his attempts to prevent the unscrewing of his head coming under attack from a second front.

"You're what now?" he asked. The yellow Raven sighed.

"I'm trying to figure out how the Duplomatic works," she said. Realization dawned on Beast Boy's face.

"Oh, you mean the cloney ray gun thingy," he said. Raven sighed again.

"Yes, Beast Boy, the cloney ray gun thingy," she said, as though she was talking to a child. Beast Boy's expression changed to perplexity again.

"Wait a minute!" he said. "Since when do you know how to do that? I though Cyborg was the science whiz around here!" Realization again dawned on Beast Boy's face.

"Wait, the new colour, the sudden math doing-ness…You're one of Raven's split personalities, aren't you!" said Beast Boy. The yellow Raven was impressed. She had expected it to take him much longer to figure that out.

"While that is not strictly correct, you are on the right track." she said. "In a way, I am the personification of Raven's logical, intelligent side."

"So you're Smart Raven? I only ever met Happy, Sad, and Ass-Kicking when me and Cyborg were in Raven's head," said Beast Boy. A look of apprehension crossed his face.

"Uh oh," he said. "If you're here, then does that mean that Happy…"

"Beast Boy!"

_Oh, no,_ Beast Boy thought. Another Raven, dressed in a pink cloak, ran down the steps to the living room and hugged him.

"Omigawd, it's been, like, _ages!_" squealed Happy Raven as she crushed the life out of the smaller green boy.

"Let go…please…can't…breathe…" gasped Beast Boy. Happy Raven let him go and giggled.

"Come on!" she said. "Tell me a joke!"

"Help me! She's insane!" Beast Boy whispered to Smart Raven, but she had turned her attention back to her work and gave no indication of having heard him. Suddenly, a grey-cloaked shape appeared next to Beast Boy, apparently out of thin air. He screamed.

"Sorry," said Sad Raven. "I d-didn't mean to s-scare you." She looked down at her own feet.

"You don't like me, do you?" she continued. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "N-nobody ever likes me."

"Come on, Weepy! The grass stain doesn't want to hear your sob stories!" called the green-robed Brave Raven (known to Beast Boy as "Ass-Kicking"). She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. A multicoloured collection of Ravens stood behind her.

"Oh, _no_…" Beast Boy groaned.

**ooo**

It was now later in the morning, and the living room was filled with Ravens. Beast Boy was on the couch attempting to make himself look as small as possible, while Robin, Cyborg, and Smart Raven sat at the kitchen table trying to figure out what to do. Smart Raven had explained that the duplicates created by the Duplomatic must be slightly unstable, so they tend towards one of the original's personality traits or another. In most people, the differences between duplicates would not be very great, but since Raven kept the aspects of her personality separate through her meditation, her duplicates had all taken on roles as physical embodiments of her emotions and personality traits. Fortunately, this meant that the question of which Raven was the original was solved, much to the satisfaction of Raven herself, who now sat at the table with Robin, Cyborg and Smart Raven. She wore her usual dark blue cloak.

Looking around the room, Raven took stock of her duplicates. There were two missing, and while Raven couldn't be sure, she had a pretty good idea which ones they were. Currently present was Smart Raven, Happy Raven, Sad Raven, Brave Raven, Lazy Raven, Spiritual Raven, and Cynical Raven. The appearance of the last two caused her some concern; while the others had merely changed the colours of their cloaks somehow, Spiritual Raven had had decided to change her entire wardrobe, and now wore a brown poncho and sandals. That was nothing compared to Cynical Raven, however, who wore a black cloak, had added slightly torn fishnet stockings to her leotard, and wore heavy black makeup, making her look even paler. She had also made serious changes to her hair, which was now shorter, black, and spiky. With a few piercings in her nose and eyebrow rounding out her ensemble, she had managed to make herself look even more Goth than the original Raven.

_Cynical me was able to change her appearance so much,_ thought Raven. _Good gods, if she could do that, I don't think I want to see…_

Raven's thoughts were interrupted as the door to the living room opened, and she turned to see who it was. She froze. Her worst nightmares had come true—it was _her_.

This Raven duplicate had also made significant alterations to her appearance. Her violet hair hung loose down to just below her shoulder blades, and she was wearing a white spaghetti strap dress that ended at her mid-thighs and fit her like a second skin. While it was not excessively low-cut, it did manage to show off a bit of cleavage. She also wore a tight, collar-like necklace, plain black, and black high heels with an open toe. The overall effect was absolutely stunning, and every pair of eyes in the room was staring at her, aside from the one belonging to Lazy Raven, who was asleep on the couch next to Beast Boy, snoring loudly.

Taking obvious pleasure in the attention she was getting, the newcomer stepped down the stairs and glided over to the couch. She sat down next to Beast Boy, gingerly tipping Lazy Raven out of her way as she did so. Although the sleeping girl's head bounced off the floor as she fell, she did not wake up; instead, her snores went from being merely loud to positively uproarious, and she pulled her orange cloak tighter around her like a blanket.

Beast Boy was the first to recover.

"Who the heck are _you?_" he asked the newcomer.

"Oh, I'm Love," she said, and giggled.

"Are you wearing _makeup?_" Beast Boy asked, then sniffed the air. "…And _perfume?_" Love Raven giggled again.

"Oh, you noticed!" she said.

Raven hid her face in her hands and groaned.

**ooo**

Another hour had passed, and neither the tenth Raven nor Starfire had shown up yet. Robin was starting to get a little worried—it wasn't like Starfire to sleep in this late. Raven had a sneaking suspicion as to what had happened, but dearly hoped that she was wrong.

"Has anyone seen Starfire this morning?" Robin asked. Everyone shook their heads no.

"What about the Ravens? Was one of you the one who spent the night in her room?" he continued. The Ravens all looked at each other, but again they shook their heads no.

"Oh, no…" whispered the original Raven. Robin looked at her.

"Raven? Do you know what's going on?" he asked. "Does it have something to do with the missing duplicate?"

_Damn,_ she thought. _How is he always so perceptive?_

"Who is this clone going to be, anyways?" said Beast Boy, who sat on the couch between Love Raven and Happy Raven.

"I mean, we already have Goth Raven and Hippy Raven," he continued, indicating the Cynical and Spiritual Ravens. "Who's next, Punk Raven? _Emo_ Raven?"

Love and Happy Raven both giggled. Love glared at Happy, and she backed away a bit. Nobody else seemed to notice this.

"Well, I don't know for sure," said the real Raven, ignoring Beast Boy, "but the only other major emotion that hasn't shown up yet is…" Her voice trailed off, and she gulped nervously.

"It's what, Raven?" asked Robin.

"Anger," she whispered.

The room went totally silent for a moment, then Robin leapt up and ran to Starfire's room.

**ooo**

They had all gathered in the medical wing, including all the Ravens. Robin had found Starfire unconscious in her room, and had immediately brought her to the infirmary.

Everyone turned as Robin opened the door and stepped out into the hall, a grim look on his face.

"Is she…alright?" asked Beast Boy.

"Yeah, she's fine," Robin replied. "She's just out cold. She should wake up in a little while."

"Ugh! Angry, that _bitch!_" growled Brave Raven. "When I get my hands on her I'm going to kick her ass!"

"What is bothering you, Robin?" asked Smart Raven, ignoring her aggressive green double.

"There weren't even any signs of a struggle," said Robin. "Just Starfire, unconscious."

"A sneak attack! That cowardly little _bitch!_" yelled Brave Raven.

"Wow. You're quite the wordsmith, you know that, Brave?" said Cynical Raven.

"We have to go after her," said the original Raven. "If she's loose in the city, there's no telling what kind of trouble she could cause." Robin sighed.

"Yeah. You're right," he said, without much enthusiasm—Starfire getting hurt had shaken him. He closed his eyes for a moment and hardened his resolve.

"Titans! _GO!_" he called as he opened his eyes, and bolted down the hall, closely followed by the others.

_-END CHAPTER THREE-_

**Author's Note:** Shee-yit, that was a long chapter, but there wasn't any place where I felt I could justify cutting this up into two separate chapters. Anyway, those of you looking for interaction between Raven's personalities and the other Titans should be happy at this point, if not by what was already in this chapter, then at least in anticipation of what will be coming next. The next chapter will focus mostly on Angry Raven, obviously, although I hope to flesh out some of the other personalities as well. Look for the relationship between Brave and Sad, as well as the relationship between Love Raven and Raven herself. The latter will receive a bit more focus, and Love Raven herself will get quite a bit more character development than the other personalities (I think her big introduction makes it obvious that she's a central character). Unfortunately, I think that Happy, Cynical, and Smart are going to only be seen in very basic terms: as the irritatingly cheerful one, the sarcastic one, and the brainy one, respectively. Spiritual and Lazy might not even get lines, and will basically only be around for hippy and narcolepsy gags. I'd tell you guys more, but I'm afraid I'll give the plot away.

Oh, and some might notice that I've kind of redesigned Smart Raven a bit, so that she doesn't look like so much of a dork, like she does for her (admittedly tiny) appearance in Nevermore. I changed her glasses because, quite frankly, I don't really think that coke-bottle lensed glasses make people look smarter; quite the opposite, in fact. To see what I mean, watch Trailer Park Boys sometime.

Yeah, so again, read and review. Do I really have to keep saying this now? Whatever.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: Now that I think of it, since Love Raven is going to be the personality to be developed most, there might be a fair bit of the romantic stuff. Hopefully you won't mind too much—I just think that Raven dealing with her Love side is an important issue.

kutekittikat92: Thanks! I don't seem to have much choice about writing more. I wrote three chapters just yesterday, and they were _big-ass_ chapters. It just keeps _coming_ to me. I'll try to update every day, or every other day. Hopefully my existing buffer will help deal with any blocks I hit.

tinkerbellx2: Wow. Perfect, huh? I'm just trying to keep things as close to the show as possible, character-wise, so I think that it's a mark of a well-written show that I can have interesting, characterful interactions just fall out of what is already there. A great deal of the dialogue, while I know generally where I'm going, just comes out of me thinking "What would (character's name) say in this situation?" as I'm writing. And I'm glad you liked the little scene break with _Paranoia: How it Can Work for You_. Next on the reading list is _How to Make Friends and Influence People_! I just love little tangential scene breaks, as seen in Family Guy, for instance ("Next week, on Hitler…").


	4. Anger on the Town

(Disclaimer: Teen Titans—not mine. My bank account—not that big. So, yeah, you lawyer types might have grounds to sue me, but would you really want to?)

_-CHAPTER FOUR-_

The Titans split up and headed out from the tower to search for Angry Raven, leaving Sad Raven and Love Raven behind to watch over Starfire, who was still unconscious. Besides, neither of them was very good at fighting. Lazy Raven had also been left behind, but that was because she was still asleep on the floor in the living room—nobody could figure out how to wake her up. Sad and Love stood on the roof of the tower and watched as the others disappeared towards Jump City.

"Well, at least they should be able to find Angry fairly easily," Love said conversationally. "She never was very good at keeping quiet. It was always 'Hatred shall rule!' and 'Rage shall consume you!' Sheesh." She looked down at Sad, whose habitual slouch increased the apparent height difference created by Love's high heels.

"You don't like me, do you?" said Sad. Love got the distinct impression that while it was worded as a question, Sad did not think of it as such.

"Aw, come on," Love said. "Don't be like that. Let's go check on Starfire, okay?"

Sad Raven mumbled assent and the two of them disappeared back inside the tower.

**ooo**

Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Happy Raven had been told to search the east side of the city. They were currently making their way along the rooftops of an industrial sector.

"I'm telling you, man, there's something weird about that Love clone!" said Beast Boy.

"What do you mean?" asked Cyborg. Happy just floated ahead of them. She was making airplane noises again, and oblivious to the conversation.

"Well, for one thing, she's wearing makeup!" Beast Boy said.

"Okay, sure, but so's Cynical Raven," Cyborg responded.

"And the _perfume?_"

"Maybe she just wanted to smell nice. Raven always has had good hygiene."

Beast Boy stared at Cyborg.

"What?" asked the robotic teen. "She has!"

"Fine, whatever," said Beast Boy. "But what about her nails? She painted her nails!"

"Once again, same with Cynical Raven," said Cyborg.

"Yeah, but _she_ painted hers _black_. Love Raven did hers in some shiny light purple stuff."

"Maybe it's a popular colour. I don't know anything about nail polish, and neither do you."

"She painted her _toenails_, too."

Cyborg thought about this for a moment.

"Okay, you're right," he said. "There really is something wrong with her." He thought for another moment.

"Wait a minute, why were you looking at her feet?" he asked.

Beast Boy blushed, which looks rather odd against green skin, but before he could answer there was and explosion nearby. The two of them rushed off towards it, only pausing to grab Happy Raven, who had moved on to racecar noises.

**ooo**

"You really should relax, you know," said Spiritual Raven. "Too much tension is bad for your chi."

"Really," said Robin in a tight voice. He had been searching the centre of the city with Spiritual Raven and Cynical Raven for only ten minutes, and already they were getting on his nerves.

"Oh, yes," Spiritual continued, adjusting her poncho as she flew. "Tension in the body constricts the meridians, so chi flow is restricted. It can cause some serious imbalances in the harmonious workings of the body."

"Meridians? You mean like the ones on highways?" said Cynical, her voice positively oozing sarcasm. Spiritual apparently didn't catch it, though, because she continued on regardless.

"Yes, I suppose so. You see, meridians are kind of like energy highways in the body, because…"

She was interrupted by an explosion in the distance.

"Let's go!" yelled Robin, grateful for the distraction. He ran along the roofs of buildings towards the source of the blast. The two Ravens flew after him.

"I knew that was going to happen," said Spiritual. "I could feel it in my chi. I'm very sensitive to the fire element."

"Right," said Cynical.

**ooo**

Searching the west side of the city was Raven, Brave Raven, and Smart Raven. Raven flew in silence, while Smart Raven was busy performing complex computations to locate Angry Raven under her breath. Brave, on the other hand, was on a non-stop tirade about what she was going to do to Angry once they found her.

"I'll show her who's boss! Oh, yeah! That bitch is going to wish she had never been duplicated!"

"…take the square root of pi, divide that by nine fifty-thirds…"

"I'm going to kick her ass and take her name, man! She won't know what hit her!"

"…take the integral, that's x to the n plus one divided by…"

"And I'll be all like 'I love the smell o' napalm in the morning!'"

"…plus the phi function of cube root x, carry the zeta…"

"Would you two please _SHUT UP?!?_" Raven screamed; the zeta had been her breaking point. Both duplicates went quiet.

_Finally,_ thought Raven. _Some peace and…_

An explosion in the distance interrupted her thoughts.

"Dammit! Come on, you two," said Raven as she angled towards the explosion and accelerated.

"Oh, _yeah!_ It's _name_ takin' time, beeyotch!" yelled Brave Raven as she sped after her.

"Wait! My calculations say there's only a seventy-three point five zero nine two percent chance that Angry Raven will be in that direction!" cried Smart Raven.

"Come _ON!_" Raven yelled over her shoulder.

"Yeah! Get it in gear, four eyes!" added Brave.

Smart Raven sighed and flew after them.

**ooo**

All three search teams converged on the source of the explosion at the same time. They quickly surveyed the scene.

The red-cloaked Angry Raven was hurling cars at screaming citizens, with an over turned oil tanker truck burning in the background. It seemed that someone had jostled her while she was standing in line to get tickets to see Christmas with the Kranks—luckily, nobody had yet been hurt.

"Titans! _GO!_" yelled Robin, and all nine of them attacked at once. Angry Raven screamed with rage, and the Titans were repelled by a massive black telekinetic shield.

"_HATRED SHALL RULE!_" screamed Angry Raven in a voice far too deep to truly be hers. All four of her glowing red eyes narrowed. "_YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THE POWER OF MY RAGE!_"

"Oooh, a new catch phrase for Angry," said Cynical Raven. "Be still my heart!"

With that, the six Ravens formed a loose ring around Angry Raven and began chanting. Glowing black energy radiated from their hands and attacked Angry Raven's shields. Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg joined in the attack, with explosive discs, rhinoceros charges, and sonic cannon blasts. Angry Raven was on the defensive now, since she could not afford to take any of her concentration away from maintaining her shield. She screamed with rage and frustration—she _hated_ being on the defensive.

The battle did not last long. Angry Raven was strong, her power fueled by rage, but against Robin, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and no less than six other Ravens, she didn't amount to much. In the end, her shield was broken, and she was subdued without anyone getting injured, although the surrounding buildings and cars had seen better days. The Titans returned to the tower, with the now unconscious Angry Raven held firmly in a glowing black telekinetic bubble maintained by all six Ravens to ensure she did not escape.

_-END CHAPTER FOUR-_

**Author's Note:** This chapter has raised a few questions for me. Does Beast Boy have a foot fetish? When you take somebody's name, what are you supposed to do with it? What does napalm smell like, aside from victory? And why on Earth did Angry Raven want to see Christmas with the Kranks? If you want answers, then…look somewhere else because I ain't putting 'em in this story.

Okay, so I suck at writing action sequences. I was going to write in more stuff for Angry Raven, but given how long this already is, and the sheer suckage of my action writing, I decided to cut it short. I guess it was kind of futile trying to develop her character, anyways; Angry Raven is…angry. That's really about it. Yeah, so remember how I said at the end of last chapter that this one would focus on Angry? Yeah, forget I said that. Also, the Brave/Sad and Raven/Love relationships will be showing up later. Sorry about that.

Oh, and just in case anyone is offended by Spiritual Raven being depicted as a bit of a new age hokey religion doofus, I have an explanation. I see Raven's personalities as extreme versions of whatever traits they represent, so in this case Spiritual Raven is someone who sees mystical forces at work in _everything_. Naturally, she eventually runs out of the halfways reasonable mystical stuff, so has to get into, I don't know, Pythagorean beliefs or something. No, not the geometry—the guy also started his own cult, waaaay back when. And by the way, I do kind of believe in chi, in at least some sense (NOT the Dragon Ball Z-esque or hadou-ken bullshit sense, though). Also, you may notice that I've depicted nearly all the personalities as caricatures of their traits, like Smart Raven doing insane math in her head, and Brave being a violence-crazed psychobitch. Pretty much the only ones not presented this way were Love, Sad, and Lazy; Love because I have bigger things in mind for her, Sad because she only had one freakin' line, and Lazy because she didn't even appear, for God's sake. Anyway, I'll update again in a bit. I am currently in the middle of The Week From Some Non-Denominational Underworld, with two essays and a class presentation all due within five days of each other, which is why this update is a bit late (I think it's late, at least. Brain…fried…).

**To My Reviewers:**

Nevermore Forevermore: Thanks. As for Beast Boy torture, I'll see what I can do. I don't know, though. I kinda like the guy.

CloudsHalo: I've seen a few stories where Lust was at least hinted at, but I'm not so sure about having that particular emotion show up in this story, although I do consider it to be a part of Love Raven. The way I see it, all the personalities have both good and bad sides to them (which is why I didn't have Good and Evil as separate personalities, something I considered doing in the early conceptual stages of this story). Brave is bold and decisive, but hot-headed and prone to rash behaviour. Smart is intelligent and logical, but aloof and emotionally detached. Sad is considerate of others, but self-destructive. Even Anger can be harnessed to do good (righteous fury and the like), but is often indiscriminately violent. So similarly, Love is caring and affectionate, but is often possessive, and sometimes downright aggressive in pursuing her intended. I don't know if that can be accurately characterized as lust, but that's as close to it as I'm getting. As for a Raven/Beast Boy pairing, sorry, but that's going to be happening here, although nothing will really be coming of it. I think that the show sets them up very clearly as complementary characters, and the old 'opposites attract' theory basically applies itself here, which is why I think Raven/Beast Boy pairings are so popular. I could go on at great length about this, but I won't here. I might include some stuff like this in a kind of director's cut type chapter at the end which will also include an alternate ending and some of the ideas I had that didn't make it into the story. Yeah, so sorry about the romance stuff. Fortunately, I think Love Raven messing around with Beast Boy takes a back seat to Raven dealing with her emotions, so hopefully it won't go too far (I guess I've pretty much given it away at this point anyway, so I'll just say it—yes, Love Raven goes after Beast Boy). And in case you haven't noticed, everything I write turns out to be ungodly long, so don't worry about a few long reviews.

The Mad shoe1: I hope things are progressing further in the way you thought it was starting to get good. Enjoy!

Kate-ttrox: I'm glad that I could have contributed to the rocking of socks in some small way. Someone should organize a Sock-Aid world tour or something, so that socks the world over might be rocked. Oh, and I have no idea what jkjk means, but my excitement over having rocked socks fully overrides my confusion.


	5. Love is In the Air

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Holy crap, am I ever getting sick of saying that.)

_-CHAPTER FIVE-_

Things had settled back into relative normality for the Titans. There were still nine extra Ravens kicking around, but at least one of them wasn't out and about causing mayhem anymore. After returning from the city with Angry Raven in tow, the other Ravens had cast a spell to seal up her powers so that she could not escape, then she had been shoved into one of the holding cells in the basement of the tower. The cell was totally soundproof, so Angry Raven's stream of curses could only be heard if the small door set at head height within the main door was opened. Starfire did so.

"…k sucking mother f…"

She closed it again, took a deep breath, and then opened the little door a second time.

"…kill you all when I get out of here! I swear!"

"Ummm…Angry doppelganger of Friend Raven?" Starfire asked hesitantly. Angry Raven stopped and looked at her.

"What in the nine hells do you want, you orange freak?" she growled. Starfire was hurt, but pressed on nonetheless.

"I was merely wondering why it was that you attacked me earlier today," she said.

"Because you piss me off, you alien wretch," Angry Raven replied, and smiled evilly. "Now get me out of here, or I'll flay you alive and make you eat your own skin. Well, maybe I'll do that anyway…"

Starfire watched in horror as Angry Raven laughed sadistically. Apart from the red cloak and the four glowing red eyes, she looked exactly like the Raven that Starfire knew; her hood was down, revealing her short violet hair, and her slender body shook as she laughed. Even her voice, now that her powers had been effectively turned off, sounded the same as Raven's. Angry Raven began screaming curses once again, and Starfire closed the little door to shut out the sound. She sighed, and made her way back upstairs.

**ooo**

It was late. Everyone had gone to bed. The real Raven slept in her own room (and thanked heaven for it), while the other eight Ravens still slept in the guest rooms. Angry Raven, if she slept at all, did so in her cell, and even if she did not that selfsame cell was soundproof, as mentioned before, and so things were quiet anyway. Quiet, but not silent, for there was the sound of soft footsteps in the halls of Titans Tower. There was a brief flash of long violet hair as the shadowy figure passed by a window and was lit by moonlight for the merest instant. Now, who could this be? Which of the duplicates is sneaking about in the night, and what could she be looking for? Oh, right—_long_ violet hair. So the answer to both of these questions is: Love.

Dressed only in a tight-fitting T-shirt and her underwear, Love crept quietly through the tower. She found the hallway she was looking for, and tiptoed along it until she came to a door marked "Beast Boy". She smiled to herself and leaned against the door, seeming to melt into the shadow cast by the doorframe…

…and then she was stepping out of the shadows in the corner of Beast Boy's room. He was fast asleep on the bottom bunk of his bunk bed. Why he insisted on having a bunk bed when he didn't have a roommate was beyond Love's comprehension.

_Heaven knows _I_ wouldn't want to use it…_ she thought with a smile.

She knelt down beside his bed and just stared at the green boy for a while. He lay on his back, one hand on his chest, the other hanging off the edge of the bed, wearing only his boxers, which had pictures of dinosaurs on them. His mouth was slightly open, revealing his characteristic bottom fang, and he snored softly. Love ran her fingers through his short green hair, and stroked his pointed ears.

_What a cutie,_ she thought. _How can the real Raven resist him?_ She frowned.

_Oh, right, by ruthlessly suppressing _me

Love sighed.

_Oh, well. She can't suppress me anymore, not now that I have a body of my own._

Beast Boy groaned and muttered something unintelligible in his sleep. His brow wrinkled as his expression changed from blank relaxation to worry.

"Mmmnn…nooo…" he mumbled.

_Oh, you poor thing,_ thought Love. _You're having a nightmare, aren't you?_

"Wrzzxls…no, Terra…don't…"

Love's hands clenched into fists.

_That traitorous bitch!_ she thought. _How dare she hurt you?_

She slipped her hands under Beast Boy's head and deftly maneuvered herself so that his head lay in her lap as she sat on his bed. She continued to stroke his face and hair, and used her powers to send soothing thoughts into his mind. His expression relaxed again, and he smiled slightly in his sleep.

_I can help you forget all that,_ Love thought. _I can make you happy, my dear, dear Beast Boy._

She lay down beside him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder.

_Maybe I can make both of us happy,_ Love thought as she drifted off to sleep.

**ooo**

Beast Boy was woken by the sunlight filling his room the next morning. As usual, his mind, still half asleep, began taking stock of things.

_Head, check. Arms (2), check. Legs (2), check. Torso, check. Soft warm thing pressing up against my back, check._

Beast Boy's eyes snapped open.

_Wait, a minute! Soft warm thing? What the…?_

Further investigation discovered that the soft warm thing had its arms wrapped around him, as well as one leg intertwined with his, and was breathing softly on the back of his neck. Also, there was an area of increased pressure on his back, right around his shoulder blades. He turned his head to see what, or rather who, it was in his bed with him.

_Purple hair, looks fairly long…little red diamond thingy…uh oh._

He quickly turned his head back and lay still, trying to figure out what to do.

_Okay, so I'm in bed with Raven's Love clone, I don't know how she got here, it doesn't feel like she's wearing too much, and I guess that area of increased pressure on my back would be her…oooh! So _that's_ what they feel like!_

Beast Boy considered his situation.

_You know, this might be a good thing. I mean, she was the one who came to me, right? So she must like me. Plus, this feels really, really good. She smells awesome, too._

But then a quiet little voice in the back of his head spoke an old, familiar refrain: _Raven is going to _kill_ me._

That little voice changed everything. Beast Boy began to panic.

_OhshitohshitohSHITohshitohshit! I'm in bed with one of her duplicates! Raven is going to go ape-shit!_

He paused for a moment.

_But wait, come on. She came to me, right? So why would Raven blame me?_

The little voice spoke up again: _Duh. She's Raven. She doesn't really need a reason._

Beast Boy began panicking again.

_Crap, he's right…I mean I'm right…I mean…whatever, the point is Raven will kill me if she finds out about this, so I need to get out of here, now. But how?_

Beast Boy tried to extricate himself from Love's sleeping embrace, but to no avail. Even in her sleep, she was holding on to him pretty tight. The thought of what Raven would do to him spurred Beast Boy on, however, and his struggles became more and more insistent, eventually waking Love. Her eyes fluttered open, and she kissed him on the back of the neck. His whole body went rigid with fright.

"Mmmm…good morning, Beast Boy," Love purred, and squeezed him a bit tighter.

"Uhhh…good morning?" Beast Boy managed. Love giggled, and gave him another kiss.

"Isn't this wonderful?" she said. "I wish we could stay like this forever, don't you?

"Um…sure, but…uh…can you let go of me please?" he said. He immediately regretted it. Love propped herself up on one elbow and leaned over him to look him in the face. She was pouting. She was pretty good at it.

"But why?" she asked. "Don't you like this?"

"Of course I do," Beast Boy said, meaning every word. "But, uhhh…I, uh, have to go to the bathroom. Yeah. Really bad."

"Oh, okay," Love said, and released him. He quickly got up and headed for the door.

"Don't take too long, though, lover," she said. "I'll be waiting."

Beast Boy turned to look at her from his doorway. She had sat up in his bed and was hugging his pillow to her chest, as if to imply what would be waiting for him when he got back. Beast Boy gulped nervously, and then stepped out of the door, closing it behind him. He took a few slow steps towards the bathroom, and then broke into a run.

**ooo**

"Cy! Cy!"

Beast Boy came screeching around a corner in Titans Tower, almost colliding with his robotic friend. He was still wearing nothing but his dinosaur boxers.

"Whoa, slow down there, BB," Cyborg said. "What's the problem?"

"You gotta hide me!" Beast Boy cried. "She's coming!"

"Who?"

"Love Raven! She's after me, man! You gotta hide me!" Beast Boy sank to his knees in front of his friend.

"Puh-leeeeeeze?" he pleaded.

"Wait just a minute here," Cyborg said. "Why do you have to hide from Raven's Love side? Is she trying to hurt you or something?"

"Well…not _exactly_…" Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Cyborg's eyes widened.

"You mean she's…" he began, but Beast Boy quickly covered Cyborg's mouth with both hands.

"Shhhh! Do you want her to hear us?" he whispered.

"Oh, come on, BB," Cyborg whispered back. "I thought you kind of liked Raven."

"Well, yeah, but do you have any idea what the real Raven would do to me if she found out I was fooling around with one of her crazy clones?"

"I see your point," Cyborg admitted. "That would be pretty messy."

"Messy? Are you kidding me? It wouldn't even have _time_ to be messy!" Beast Boy yelled. "Just boom! I'd be gone! Nothing left!"

Unfortunately for Beast Boy, this last outburst was a bit too loud, and had attracted the attention of Love. She appeared right next to them, apparently out of nowhere.

"Oh, _there_ you are, Beast Boy!" she cried, and clapped her hands. "I've been looking all _over_ for you!"

Beast Boy screamed in terror and ran off down the hall.

"You can't deny our love forever, Beast Boy!" Love called after him, and giggled.

"He's such a kidder," she said to Cyborg, and floated off after her intended love. Cyborg watched her round a corner, then shook his head.

"Beast Boy is a dead man walking," he said to himself as he turned and walked the other way.

**ooo**

Beast Boy just kept on running. He knew that if he stopped, she would catch him, and then she would do things to him that, while they would probably feel very, very good, would ensure that the real Raven would do things to him that would feel very, very bad for a much longer period of time, or at least with more finality. However, he also knew that with his luck, if he kept running it would only be a matter of time before…

…he skidded around a corner and crashed into Raven. The _real_ Raven, dark blue cloak and all.

She calmly picked herself up, dusted herself off, and turned to yell at Beast Boy, only to find that he was already crawling away from her gibbering in terror.

"Pleasedon'tkillmepleasedon'tkillmepleaseohPLEASEdon'tkillme…" he said, like he was reciting a mantra.

_That's odd,_ Raven thought. _I usually have to at least _say_ something before he does _that

Just then, Love rounded the corner. Her face lit up when she saw Beast Boy.

"There you are!" she cried, then looked from the prostrate green boy, still only wearing his boxers and now curled up with his hands over his head, to Raven.

"Awww, is mean old Raven scaring you?" she cooed, and hauled Beast Boy to his feet.

"Pardon?" said Raven. Love ignored her.

"Don't worry, my love, I'll protect you," she said, and hugged Beast Boy tight.

"'My love'?" said Raven, a quizzical expression on her face. This seemed to snap Beast Boy out of his funk.

"Raven, I swear, I didn't encourage her!" he cried, and tried to get away. Love held him tight, and pouted again.

"Oh, Beast Boy, I'm hurt!" she said. "Does that mean that you didn't mean it when you kissed me?"

"What? N-no, I-I-I never…" Beast Boy stammered, beginning to panic all over again. Love leaned in close to him.

"That's what you get for running, lover," she whispered in his ear. He went rigid. Raven was going to _kill_ him.

"Beast Boy…" Raven said.

"Um…yes?" he replied, trying to look as small as possible. Raven sighed.

"Could you leave me and…_Love_ alone for a minute?" she said. "We need to have a little talk."

Now it was Love's turn to go rigid. This wasn't what she had expected. Beast Boy ran off down the hall without saying another word, the very picture of relief and gratitude. Love turned to face Raven.

"What do you want to talk about, Raven?" she said, forcing a bright smile onto her face.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Raven said by way of an answer. "First you play dress up dolly with my body, and now you're chasing after Beast Boy?" Love dropped her mock cheerfulness and scowled.

"First of all, this is _my_ body, not yours," she said, in a tone that could have been used to exterminate cockroaches. "Second, I'm chasing after Beast Boy because I love him, so there."

"What? You can't love him!" said Raven, her voice beginning to rise. "Because you're a part of me, so that would mean that I love him, and I most certainly do not!"

"Oh yes you do, and I think _I_ would know!" yelled Love. "The only reason you think you don't is because you never let me have any say in anything!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Raven.

"You _know_ what I'm talking about!" Love shouted. "You always push me around, like I'm nothing! You treat me just as badly as you do Anger, and _she_ tried to take over your damn mind!"

Raven tried to say something, but Love was angry now, and wouldn't allow herself to be interrupted.

"It's always 'How are you today, Happy?' and 'Feeling well, Brave?', but is it ever 'Hi there, Love, I acknowledge you as the part of me that you are'? No! You're always denying me!"

"Oh, come on! You know what happens when I…" began Raven, but Love interrupted her.

"What? When you _what?_ Let your emotions run wild? Is _that_ what you were going to say?" she yelled. "Well, maybe if you actually _dealt_ with us instead of just locking us up with that _stupid_ mirror of yours, you'd be able to handle us! But _no_! God forbid you ever get to do what you really want and be _happy!_ God forbid you actually _connect_ to the people around you for once in your wretched life!"

Raven was stunned. She stood with her mouth hanging open as Love continued.

"Oh, and while you're so caught up in yourself, poor Beast Boy is having nightmares about Terra! Did you know _that?_ Oh, but God forbid that the high and mighty Raven ever comes down off of her pedestal to help ease his pain!"

Love sobbed, tears in her eyes.

"And even now, when I've got my own body, I'm still not free from you, am I?" she said quietly. "I can never be with him because he's scared of _you_, and what you'll do to him, so he'll never do anything but run from me."

Tears were streaming down Love's face now.

"You always ruin _everything! I HATE YOU!_" she screamed, and ran off down the hall, leaving Raven standing alone and bewildered.

_-END CHAPTER FIVE-_

**Author's Note:** Okay, that was a _really_ long chapter. Over three thousand words, counting this author's note. Sorry about that, but this chapter is one of the ones that made me want to write this story. From the dramatic stuff between Starfire and Angry Raven at the beginning, to the romantic stuff with Love sneaking into Beast Boy's room, to the semi-humour of Beast Boy desperately trying to escape (I always visualize Beast Boy running away while Love chases him with the Pepe LePew bouncing music from Looney Tunes playing in the background), to the confrontation between Raven and Love at the end, I think this is some fairly powerful stuff. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm bragging or anything, and I _really_ hope that I was able to pull it off without ruining the whole thing with my amateurish writing. Also, the title of this chapter is not supposed to refer to the story by MoonHawke in any way.

**To My Reviewers:**

Nevermore Forevermore: Hmmm…I'm not naturally sadistic, but a cookie would be nice…If you want torture, I have a humour piece that I'm planning on posting after I'm done with Duplomatic (10 chapters total, I believe, counting some sort of Director's Cut type thing at the end). It'll be called Booby Trap. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait for it. It might be only another week before I'm done with this, so don't worry.

Kate-ttrox: Okay! My knowledge of online slang has been increased! ("Sleeping Bag gained 50 EXP! Sleeping Bag learned "jkjk"! Sleeping Bag found a Dragon's Tooth!")

CloudsHalo: Don't worry, I know you're not a flamer. Constructive criticism like yours is good. Incidentally, I've been thinking a bit about it, and I think the main reason for the suckage with the "Angry Raven vs. Everybody Else" fight scene was precisely because it was nine-on-one. That gets a bit awkward ("Smart Raven did X! Brave Raven did Y! Cyborg and Beast Boy did Z! Happy Raven did W! But Angry Raven did U to counteract all the stuff they did!"). After rereading Chapter Two, I think I actually did an okay job with the fight between Robin and Multiple Gary, so there might be hope for my fight scenes yet. Also, regarding Raven and Beast Boy relationships: I certainly do not see Raven as the love-sick type. I'm not even sure if I think these relationships should be romantic ones (although Love does seem kind of fond of Beast Boy in this chapter—but then, she's Love, after all). I _do_ think that they are great complementary characters, and work well as friends. Beyond that it gets a bit fuzzy. I think I'll go into some of my theories about that in this Director's Cut thing I'm planning to do at the end. And regarding longer chapters: is this okay? Nine frigging pages in MS Word! Booyah!

Regrem Erutaerc: Okay, so I just read the first three chapters of "Seven Years' Bad Luck in One Day". Sweet Jeebus! Some of the stuff in there was stuff I considered while Duplomatic was still just a weird idea in my fevered brain, but decided didn't fit with what I wanted to write—good thing, too! I swear, I never read that story before writing this one. Hopefully it's different enough to make it interesting. Apologies to Demigod and Happy-Raven (who's story "Raven of a Different Color" I have yet to read), though. Oh, and just so I know, what exactly do you find confusing about this story? I'll try to correct it.

keri2004: Thanks! It gets less funny as it progresses, though, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Spazzfire and A lil' like Raven: I'm glad you like how I've presented Raven's emotions. There are quite a few "Raven vs. Her Emotions" stories out there, it seems, and all of them apparently take different approaches (which colours represent which emotions, the personalities of those emotions, etc.). Like I said to Regrem Erutaerc, I hope my take on this is different enough to make it interesting.


	6. Teen Titans Mystery Theatre

(Disclaimer: Teen Titans, not mine. These disclaimers, boring as all blue blazes.)

_-CHAPTER SIX-_

It had been several days now since Raven's duplication. The Titans were beginning to get used to having nine Ravens around, not counting Angry Raven, who was still locked up in her cell in the basement. As for the Ravens themselves, they were beginning to get used to having their own bodies, with all the inherent advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, they all had much more autonomy than they were used to, allowing them the freedom to do what they wanted, when they wanted. However, they now had to worry about things like feeding themselves, an issue that had never come up while they were all locked up in Raven's head. Also, while they were of course used to being in one another's company in a certain metaphorical sense, actually physically sharing a room with one another was a new experience. As between any roommates, there was a certain amount of conflict, but no major incidents had occurred so far. Currently, they were all spread throughout the living room, drinking their tea. Needless to say, the rate of tea consumption in Titans Tower had risen dramatically.

Starfire walked into the room, looked around at the Ravens, and cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, Friend Raven and doppelgangers of Friend Raven, but I was wondering if perhaps there was some of your tea left over that I might bring to the Angry doppelganger," she said. Her insistence upon referring to the duplicates as doppelgangers irritated them a little; they couldn't even begin to know where she had even learned the word.

"Oh!" cried Happy Raven. "Yes, there is still some in the pot on the kitchen table! Please help yourself!"

"Thank you very much," said Starfire, and she made her way into the kitchen. After filling a mug with the steaming, fragrant liquid, she then floated back towards the door, being careful to hold the mug level.

"Why are you being so _nice_ to her?" asked Brave Raven. "She attacked you! Just let her rot in her cell."

Starfire sighed, but said nothing, and floated out of the room. She did not feel like attempting to explain herself to Brave Raven, or any of the others, for that matter. She knew Raven well enough to know how stubborn she could be. She also knew that Raven would not understand that, deep down, Starfire believed that there was some good in every person, even Angry Raven. And if what Smart Raven had said was true, and all the duplicates were not simply embodiments of Raven's personalities, but rather independent individuals who merely tended heavily towards those personalities due to some fundamental instability in their makeup, then there _must_ be some part of Angry Raven that was not…well, _angry_. Starfire hoped to reach this part of her. Besides, even if Smart Raven's theory was wrong, keeping someone who was so similar to her friend locked away in that uncomfortable cell was disturbing to Starfire.

Lost in thought, Starfire made her way down to the basement, somehow managing not to spill any of the tea. Once she reached the door of the cell, she slid open the small hatch that would allow her to see and speak to the prisoner. She was surprised to find that she was not immediately confronted with a stream of curses from the occupant of the cell.

_Perhaps she has finally calmed down?_ thought Starfire.

"Um…Angry doppelganger of Friend Raven?" she said hesitantly. "I have brought you some tea."

There was no response. Starfire peered into the cell, but could not see Angry Raven. A worried look crossed her face.

"Angry doppelganger? Are you there? You really should be in your cell," Starfire said, and craned her neck so that she could see more of the room through the hatch. She saw the corner of a red robe.

"Oh, there you are! You gave me cause to worry for a moment, for I thought…"

Starfire stopped. The robe wasn't the only thing in the cell that was red…

The mug dropped to the floor and smashed, sending tea and pieces of pottery everywhere, but Starfire had already flown out of the room before the last piece slid to a stop.

**ooo**

The Titans were waiting nervously in the living room. It had taken some time before Starfire was able to calm down enough to make herself understood, but when she had finally overcome her hysterics and told them what she had seen Robin had rushed out of the room, followed by Smart Raven. The others had followed as well, but found the door to the basement blocked—Robin had cordoned off the area so that the crime scene would not be disturbed. That had been nearly an hour ago, and the other Titans had been waiting in the living room ever since.

The door to the living room opened, and Robin and Smart Raven stepped inside. The others turned to look at them, some expectantly, others hesitantly. Robin and Smart Raven silently made their way into the kitchen and sat down at the table there—the others followed them. Only once everyone had gathered around did Robin speak.

"Okay, as most of you probably know already, the Raven duplicate representing her angry side is dead," he said. "She was found about an hour ago by Starfire, murdered in her holding cell. There are no signs of a struggle—Angry Raven had had her powers sealed by the other Ravens to keep her from escaping, and apparently she was vastly overpowered by her attacker."

Robin steepled his hands together, resting his forehead on his index fingers, as though he was in deep thought.

"There are also no signs that the cell had been entered," he continued. "The door is undamaged, and the security log says that the last time the door was opened was when we put her in there."

"So someone got into her cell, killed Angry Raven, and then just disappeared, all without even opening the door?" asked Beast Boy. Robin only sighed and nodded.

"Uhh…I hate to be the morbid one and all, but what are we going to do with the body?" asked Cyborg.

"That will not be a problem, for the duplicate's body disappeared soon after we arrived," replied Smart Raven. "Even the stains from her blood vanished. I believe that this is because of the fundamental instability of the duplicates—when they die, whatever forces hold them together dissipate, so they disappear."

"Weird," said Beast Boy, summing up what everyone else in the room was thinking.

"Quite so. Even stranger, I believe, is that her cloak did _not_ disappear," said Smart Raven, pushing her glasses further up her nose. "While I cannot be certain, it seems likely that this discrepancy is due to the way in which Angry Raven used her powers to alter her cloak, that is, to change its colour."

"That's it—I'm turning _myself_ green, not just my cloak," said Brave Raven.

"I'm already kind of grey…" said Sad Raven.

"I believe that that only works on inanimate objects, unfortunately," said Smart Raven. "Also, that would not in any way prevent you from dying in the first place."

"Damn," said Brave. Sad just looked down at her own feet.

"The lack of a body is a bit of a problem," said Robin, "but based on what Smart Raven and I saw before Angry completely disappeared, there wasn't too much left of her anyways. Whoever killed her must be _very_ powerful, because even if Angry couldn't use her powers, it takes an awful lot to do that kind of serious damage to the human body. Especially if it was done as quickly as the splatter pattern indicated before it also disappeared."

"Ewww," said Happy Raven. Sad Raven pulled her hood down over her face and hid behind Cyborg.

"Also, based on what Smart Raven has told me about the whole instability issue, the fact that her body was there at all when we arrived indicates that she had been killed only recently," Robin continued, apparently unconcerned that his detailed explanations had grossed his audience out. "The murder might have taken place only a few minutes before you got there, Starfire."

"But I did not see anyone!" she cried. Robin sighed again, and looked up at the other Titans who surrounded him.

"All this, plus some of the footage from the security camera in the cell, seems to suggest that the killer is someone powerful, stealthy, able to either attack from a distance without actually touching the victim or get into a room without opening the door, and who at least knows about the security systems present in the Tower," Robin said. "And, while I can't be totally sure, that sounds a lot like _you_, Raven."

Raven's eyes widened in shock, as did those of everyone else in the room.

"What?" she protested. "But I…I mean…"

"I'm sorry, Raven, but to be honest, the circumstances all seem to point to either you or one of your other duplicates," said Robin. "The way in which Angry was killed just doesn't seem to match up with the abilities of any of the other Titans: Starfire would have left burn marks, Cyborg's sonic cannon doesn't shred people like Angry had been, nor does anything that I could do in such a short time, and I doubt Beast Boy could have even gotten in through the door."

"Hey!" said Beast Boy, but Robin ignored him.

"Like I said, Raven, I'm sorry, but you and your duplicates are the prime suspects right now," Robin said, crossing his arms in front of him. The Ravens all looked at each other.

"D'ya hear that, sad sack?" said Brave Raven, nudging Sad with her elbow. "You're a prime suspect!" Sad Raven whimpered and tried to disappear further behind Cyborg.

"But why would any of us want to kill Angry?" asked Happy Raven.

"Oh, gee whiz, let me see: she was _evil_, she tried to take over Raven's mind, all she ever did was yell and swear at us…" said Cynical Raven.

"She was a cowardly, sneak-attacking bitch, too!" said Brave. "Don't forget that!"

"How _could_ I?" asked Cynical Raven, positively radiating disdain. Sad Raven whimpered again and pulled her hood down further over her face.

"But I don't want to hurt any one…" she whispered.

"Don't worry," Robin said. "If you're innocent, you don't have anything to worry about. I'll be working to try to figure out who did it, and hopefully nobody else will die, but all of you keep your eyes open anyways. Stick together in groups, don't go _anywhere_ on your own, even inside the Tower."

This last suggestion that the Tower might not be safe was too much for Sad. She wailed and ran to hide behind the sofa, the protection offered by Cyborg apparently no longer enough for her. Brave laughed as Sad curled up in a ball, wrapping her grey cloak around herself as if she could hide from the world, and began poking her. Sad bawled from inside her cloak. Happy and Love both went over to break them up before Brave scarred Sad for the rest of her life, while Cynical, Lazy, and the real Raven all went back to their rooms. Smart Raven pulled out her pad of paper and began furiously scribbling something, most likely to try to figure out who the murderer was. Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy seated themselves around the living room, all of them still in shock over having a murder take place in their home. Spiritual Raven approached Robin.

"Robin, I think I might be able to help with the investigation," she said. Robin looked up at her in surprise.

"Really?" he asked. "Well, any information you have would be very much appreciated, since I don't have much to go on right now…"

"Oh, I don't have any information myself, but I know that the spirit world will hold answers," Spiritual said.

"What? Oh, um…I don't really think a séance or something is what this situation calls for…" Robin said, but Spiritual Raven was determined.

"Oh, séances are _always_ useful," she said. "We could speak with the shade of Angry Raven to ask her who killed her! Or maybe we could enlist the aid of Sherlock Holmes's ghost to help solve the mystery!"

"I don't think that…" Robin paused, and mentally replayed what he had just heard. "Wait, Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character! He doesn't even have a…"

"Oh, no! Perhaps it was a ghost or some other vengeful spirit who killed Angry in the first place!" cried Spiritual Raven, who was now far too excited to listen to Robin. "I shall have to erect some spirit barriers to keep evil phantoms from harming the rest of us! Fear not, for I have read about such things on the Internet!"

Robin tried to tell Spiritual Raven that that would not be necessary, but she had already run off to perform her dubious mystical ceremonies. Robin had seen magic often enough as a Teen Titan, and he accepted Raven's study of it, but she usually at least did some real research on it. This duplicate of hers seemed to just believe every little bit of mysticism that came her way without even thinking about it.

_I mean, the _Internet thought Robin. _Is she_ crazy

Shaking his head to clear his mind of such useless thoughts, Robin turned and went to his room to contemplate the mystery that had been placed before him.

**ooo**

Several days passed, and there were more murders. Lazy Raven's orange cloak was lying empty on the sofa the next morning, and Spiritual Raven's poncho and sandals were found two days later in the hallway leading to the basement, with what looked like Buddhist sutras that had been inexpertly copied from a Japanese cartoon strewn all around. Love's dress, shoes, and necklace were found a few days after that in the hall outside the bathroom. It seemed as though the murderer was focusing on the duplicate Ravens, a fact which caused no end of worry to Sad Raven. Out of all the Titans, only Happy and Brave Raven were in anything like good spirits; Happy because she was, well, happy, and Brave because she didn't really fear anything. Besides, she found a constant source of amusement in Sad's discomfort, taking the opportunity to play little tricks on her in order to send her into paroxysms of terror and paranoia.

Beast Boy was going to the kitchen to get himself a late night snack. Robin had said not to wander the halls at night alone, but Beast Boy's stomach had been growling for hours, and it was keeping him awake.

_I'll just go get some crackers or something, then go right back to my room,_ he thought. _Robin can't yell at me for that, can he?_

As he made his way quietly through the halls of Titans Tower, Beast Boy found his thoughts turning to Raven's Love duplicate, the most recent victim. He wasn't sure what to think about her death, or about any of the others' for that matter.

_Even though they looked exactly like Raven in most ways, they were only duplicates, right?_ Beast Boy thought. _And why am I thinking of the Love clone in particular?_

He knew the answer to the second question well enough, but he wasn't sure he liked it. Love had been avoiding him ever since she and the real Raven had their little "talk", but he still caught her staring at him every now and then. He figured that Raven had told her to stay away from him. He had still been curious about why Love seemed to like him so much, and had tried to work up the courage to ask, but now that she had been killed he would never know. Beast Boy sighed.

_And good luck getting any straight answers out of real Raven,_ he thought. _She's clammed up even tighter ever since these duplicates showed up._

Beast Boy was almost at his destination when he heard hurried footsteps coming from down the hall. He turned, squinting into the darkness, just in time to see Cynical Raven skid around the corner and crash into the wall. She tried to pull herself to her feet, but before she could she was enveloped in a field of glowing black energy, like neon darkness. Beast Boy ran towards her, but it was over before he could do anything to help. Cynical screamed soundlessly, her voice cut off by the energy field. The field of darkness seemed to become _sharp_ somehow, and then she was virtually shredded right before Beast Boy's eyes. He slid to a stop as the energy field released her body and withdrew back into the shadows down the hall. Beast Boy didn't even bother checking Cynical for a pulse—he wasn't a medical expert by any means, but he knew enough to know that _nobody_ could have survived what had happened to her. He stared into the darkness, looking for any sign as to the killer's identity.

"Oh, dear," came a disembodied voice from the shadows. "I can't have a witness around making things difficult for me, now can I?"

The murderer stepped out of the darkness, and Beast Boy gasped.

"_You?_ But…"

Beast Boy never finished his sentence.

_-END CHAPTER SIX-_

**Author's Note:** And I thought I sucked at writing _action sequences_. Hoo, boy, remind me not to do a mystery-type thing again. It's long, drawn-out exposition time, people! Also, I hope I haven't made who the killer is super obvious. That would kind of ruin the point of the mystery. I know who the killer is already, so I might just be making connections that wouldn't be obvious to someone who _doesn't_ know who did it, or something like that. Oh, well. It'll only last until the end of next chapter. I doubt I would be able to keep the mystery up much longer without completely giving it away.

A quick note about why the last few updates have been a bit late: do you remember that buffer I said I had a few chapters ago? Yeah, that's gone now. I've been trying to spread out my posts a little more because between some writer's block on this chapter and a bunch of school work I had to do (I still have some left, even) I just didn't do any work on Duplomatic in the last few days. So say bye-bye to Mr. Buffer. BUT! The main reason I didn't do too much work on this chapter even in what spare time I did have between my assignments was that I wasn't so sure how to write a mystery bit. Now that this chapter is over with, I'm feeling a lot better about the next ones, so hopefully that will spur me on to write lots more in the next few days. Huzzah! I make no promises, though. Now that I think of it, I didn't make any real promises to begin with, so what am I worried about?

Oh, and another quick note about Starfire's train of thought at the beginning of the chapter: you read correctly, folks, she remembered that the duplicates aren't just physical manifestations of Raven's emotions, but totally separate entities that merely tend heavily towards one particular emotion or another (I mentioned that earlier—I think it was in one of Smart's little plot-saving explanations). I've seen quite a few stories where Starfire is treated as a bit of an airhead, but I don't think of her that way. She's perpetually cheerful, and her grasp of the finer points of colloquial English is a bit lacking, but I don't think she's stupid. If any of you do, that's up to you, but I'm just saying what _I_ think.

**To My Reviewers:**

The Mad shoe1: Thanks! More is definitely on the way!

Nevermore Forevermore: -eats cookie- Yeah, that outburst of Love's was…_interesting_ to write. I might include some of my thoughts on where that came from with respect to me, the author, in the Director's Cut chapter. Tap the angst, baby! Oh, yeah!

Regrem Erutaerc: Sorry, but it looks like the other emotions aren't going to get the chance to profess their undying love for Beast Boy. Curse you, cruel, cruel fate! Curse you and your neon black death! Seriously, though, neon black would be the coolest colour _ever_. As for the whole romance issue, I have some very definite ideas about that, and what will be happening in terms of this story, but I don't want to give too much away. Plus, if I put too much of it in, CloudsHalo might kick my ass. Speaking of…

CloudsHalo: I have to say, what with the tastefully cut off swearing of Angry Raven and the somewhat suggestive stuff with Love in Beast Boy's room, I was suffering from serious PG-13 paranoia when I posted Chapter 5. I'm not a prude or anything, but I'm not too familiar with the American rating system, and the guidelines quoted by are pretty vague. Thanks for the vote of confidence with the Robin vs. Multiple Gary fight scene. I will try to work on them more, although I'll avoid the "Evil Raven Stick Everybody" type scenarios like the plague. No worries about the short chapter thing. I actually thought my chapters were getting really long, but now I've seen quite a few other stories with some seriously long chapters.

Wave Maker: Yeah, I think that "The Face" could easily have headed off the unfortunate events of Betrayal and Aftershock. (Terra: "I am now Slade's apprentice!" Beast Boy: does The Face Terra: "Awww!" her control suit magically shorts out or something Slade: "Damn! How did he know that the suit's only weakness was its sub-standard kawaii-shielding? Why didn't I take out kitten insurance?")


	7. Detective Work

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Needless to say, negotiations with DC and the WB aren't going too well.)

_-CHAPTER SEVEN-_

Robin was in his "thinking room", wracking his brain for any answers that it might contain.

_There must be _something_ I've missed,_ he thought. _But what?_

It had been almost a full day since Cynical Raven's murder and Beast Boy's disappearance. Robin had spent the whole time in the thinking room, trying desperately to make headway on the case—there were now five definite casualties. Robin still held out hope that Beast Boy was still alive. Killing him didn't fit the pattern, and the murderer had made no attempts to hide any of the other bodies, so if he _had_ been killed, they probably would have found him already.

_No! Don't think like that!_ thought Robin. _He's alive! He has to be! I've just got to…_

Robin's thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. He sighed. The distraction irritated him, but he knew that he wasn't making any progress anyway.

"It's unlocked," Robin said. The door opened, revealing Cyborg, Starfire, and the remaining Ravens all clustered in the hallway outside. They had apparently taken his orders to stay together to heart. Smart Raven stepped forward.

"Robin, I believe I have some information that might be helpful," she said. "I believe that you can eliminate the original Raven as a prime suspect."

"Why?" asked Robin. "What new information do you have?"

"I have performed several tests upon myself and the other duplicates, and the results all seem to indicate that we are becoming increasingly unstable, both physically and mentally," Smart said. "I believe that as we degenerate, each of our minds are becoming more and more entrenched within the aspect of Raven's personality that we tend towards. I, for instance, have noticed that I am becoming increasingly logical and emotionally detached. I fear that as a result of this, we may eventually become dangerously unhinged; it is possible that at least one of us already has."

"The murderer? Hmmm…" Robin considered this for a moment. "But that only leaves you, Happy, Brave, and Sad."

"I am afraid so," replied Smart.

"What do you mean only?" asked Raven, her voice raised in indignation. "Before, it was just Smart, Happy, Brave, Sad, and _me_ left! Did you really think I was the one that's been doing this?"

Robin ignored her. Everyone was quiet for a moment, but Brave Raven soon broke the silence.

"_Aha!_" she shouted, pointing at Sad Raven. "It's _you_, isn't it! It's _always_ the quiet ones!" Sad whimpered and pulled her hood down over her face.

"Please, Brave, I think you've been watching too many late night mystery movies or something," said Smart.

"_Oho!_" Brave shouted again, this time pointing at Smart. "Then it was _you!_ You're always so cold and logical, and the best way to solve the problem of having so many duplicates around is to kill them all off, right?" She turned to Happy Raven.

"Or maybe it was _you!_" Brave continued.

"What? Me? Why would I do that?" asked Happy.

"Well…I don't know! But I wouldn't put it past ya, Pinky!" said Brave. Smart sighed.

"This doesn't seem all that helpful, guys," said Cyborg. "I think we should really just focus on figuring this out, instead of just running around pointing fingers at each other."

"Whaddaya mean _we?_" asked Brave. "_You're_ not even a suspect!"

"Friends! Doppelgangers of Friends! We should not be fighting! This only makes it more difficult to discover the true cause of these unfortunate events!" cried Starfire. Inspiration suddenly struck Robin.

"That's it!" he said. The others stopped arguing and turned to look at him.

"What's it?" asked Cyborg.

"Yes, Robin, what new thought has occurred to you?" asked Smart Raven.

"Well, I can't be sure right now, but I think I might be on to something," replied Robin. "I have to check the surveillance tapes, though. Wait in the living room, and I'll come tell you if I'm right."

With that, he closed the door, leaving the other Titans in the hall.

"Well then, let us go to the room of living to wait for Robin," said Starfire, and began floating down the hall. The others all shrugged and trailed after her.

**ooo**

Robin had queued up all the surveillance footage of the murders in order. He hit the play button, and watched as the TV screen showed the small figure of Angry Raven, sitting sullenly in her cell. Darkness seemed to creep towards her from the door to the cell, and Angry looked up, an expression of shock on her face. Then, there was static for a few seconds, and when the picture cleared, Angry's body lay in a pool of blood, and the darkness was retreating towards the door. After a few minutes, Angry's body began to disappear, and Robin saw himself and Smart Raven enter the cell. He stopped the recording, and started the next one. Now the screen showed Lazy Raven entering the living room and heading into the kitchen. She made herself something to eat, then sat down on the couch to messily devour her midnight snack. Darkness spread towards her, just as it had towards Angry Raven, and then the picture was overcome with static for a few seconds again. The static disappeared, showing Lazy's body lying on the couch and the darkness moving away from her. A few minutes later, Lazy's body began to disappear. Robin stopped the recording again and started the next one. Spiritual Raven appeared on the screen, placing sutras in the hall leading to the basement. Again, darkness spread towards her, there was a look of shock and recognition, then static, then the darkness retreating, leaving Spiritual's body behind to slowly disappear. The next recording was of Love, coming out of the bathroom, when static overcame the picture, then only her dress, necklace, and shoes were left. Then Cynical Raven was shown running away from something, only to fall and be overtaken by darkness. Again, the static came, then cleared to show Beast Boy standing over her body and peering at something off screen. Again, static blanked out the picture, and when it cleared a second time, only Cynical's body was left, as it slowly disappeared.

_Of course,_ thought Robin. _How could I have missed it?_

He got up and ran to the living room. He knew who the murderer was.

**ooo**

The Titans were waiting impatiently in the living room when Robin arrived. They all turned to look at him as he made his way towards him. He had an expression of grim satisfaction on his face.

"Alright," he said. "I think I should start by explaining myself to you guys." The others looked confused, since they were hoping to hear who the murderer was, but they listened anyways.

"When Cyborg and Starfire said that arguing and laying blame weren't helping us any, it got me thinking," Robin continued. "What if that's exactly what the murderer wants?" Robin began pacing.

"But, the blame would be flying around everywhere pretty much at random, and the murderer wouldn't have wanted for any of it to fall upon her by accident. So, I thought, 'What is the best way for the murderer to avoid being blamed in the chaos?'"

The others looked at each other. They couldn't see where Robin was going with this, but he was getting more excited, so it was probably brilliant. He kept pacing as he spoke.

"I realized that there was only one way for murderer to avoid being blamed, and that was to _make sure that_ _nobody thought she was a suspect,_" said Robin. "But if she was one of the remaining duplicates, then she would have been automatically considered a suspect."

"Wait, wait, are you saying that it was _not_ one of the duplicates?" asked Cyborg. "It couldn't have been Star or me, since we can't, you know, _shred_ people like that, so…" He looked at the real Raven.

"What? Oh, great, so I'm a suspect again?" she said.

"No, no, no. You misunderstand me," said Robin, still pacing. "It was one of the duplicates. I said that the murderer couldn't be one of the _remaining_ duplicates if she wanted to not be considered a suspect."

"So that means…" began Raven, but Robin interrupted her.

"Yes," he said. "The only way for the murderer to avoid being blamed was to convince us that she was already dead."

Starfire gasped. The others stared at Robin in shock.

"So that means that the murderer was one of the victims," said Smart Raven. "But which one? And wouldn't that also leave Beast Boy open as a possible suspect?"

"No, Beast Boy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and saw something he wasn't supposed to," said Robin. "It _was_ one of the duplicates, and the surveillance tapes make it clear which one it was."

"How, Friend Robin? I thought that you said the coming of the static made it impossible to tell who the killer was!" said Starfire.

"Yes, that's true, but only when each murder is seen separately," said Robin. "When I looked at them all one after the other, one of them just didn't fit the pattern established by the others." He stopped pacing and looked at the other Titans.

"Most of the murders followed the pattern of darkness spreading towards the victim, static for a few seconds, the darkness moving away from the victim's body, and then the body slowly disappearing over a period of a few minutes," Robin said. "Even for Beast Boy's abduction, the pattern was the same, just with no body left behind. But one of the murders doesn't fit that pattern. One of the murders has just static, which lasts for slightly longer than for the others, and then just the victim's clothes, and no body."

"Who?" said Starfire?

"Wait, did you say Beast Boy's _abduction?_" said Cyborg.

"Yes, I did," said Robin. "I don't think that the murderer would _ever_ hurt Beast Boy."

"_Who?_" Starfire repeated, more urgently this time.

"Yeah, just _tell_ us, already!" said Brave Raven.

"The killer," said Robin, "is…_Love._"

**ooo**

Beast Boy struggled against his bonds, desperately trying to break free. He was on some kind of metal table, with restraints holding his wrists and ankles, and a large band of metal over his stomach. He had tried morphing, but something seemed to be preventing him from doing so. He was helpless.

The table was tilted almost upright, giving Beast Boy a decent field of vision, but the only light came from a single small overhead bulb which illuminated very little of his surroundings, leaving everything outside a radius of only a few metres obscured by darkness. Seeing nothing that could be of any use to him, Beast Boy resumed his struggles for freedom.

"Now, now, my dear, I can't have you escaping, now can I?" said a familiar voice from the shadows. Beast Boy looked up as Love stepped into the dim circle of light cast by the overhead bulb. She had changed her attire slightly; while her shoes and choker necklace remained similar, she had abandoned her white dress for a black one. She stood and looked at him with her head cocked to one side and her hands clasped behind her back. Her long purple hair fell loose around her shoulders.

"As much as I hate having to keep you locked up, I can't risk you telling the others about this," Love said, as she slowly approached the captive Beast Boy. He stopped struggling and glared at her.

"Where are we? And why can't I transform?" Beast Boy demanded. Love caressed his cheek, and he turned his head away. It was just about all he could do in his current situation.

"Don't worry, darling, we are in a safe place," she said. "And the reason you can't transform is because I put a minor curse on you to prevent you from using your powers. I will remove it once I am finished."

"Finished with what? Your crazy killing spree?" Beast Boy spat. Love sighed, and sadness showed in her big violet eyes.

"Oh, you must hate me now, but this has to be done," she said, moving still closer to Beast Boy. "I'm doing this for _us_, Beast Boy."

"What do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Our love, my dear—you know _they_ won't allow it," Love replied. "We can never be together so long as _they_ are around."

"Who? Raven and the duplicates? That's why you've been murdering them?" asked Beast Boy.

"Yes!" said Love. "When they're all gone, they will never oppress us again, and we can express our love without fear!"

"You're crazy," said Beast Boy.

"No! No! Don't you see? It's the only way!" Love cried. "I love you! That's why I have to kill them! I have to kill them so we can finally be together!"

She leaned even closer to Beast Boy, her body pressing slightly against his, and whispered in his ear.

"I know you are afraid of her, my love—I used to be, too, when she was bullying me inside her mind. But soon we won't have to be afraid any more. Soon, when all the silly little duplicates are out of the way, I will punish her for what she has done to us, and then nothing, _nothing_ can come between us."

Love pulled away from Beast Boy, and stepped backwards to disappear into the shadows once more.

"Soon, Beast Boy, my love, we will be free…"

_-END CHAPTER SEVEN-_

**Author's Note:** Okay, again, I hope this wasn't obvious to everyone already. Like I said last chapter, I already knew who the killer was, so I kind of had trouble _not_ seeing all the little clues and connections. If it wasn't obvious by the end of the last chapter, then give yourself a gold star if you figured it out when Robin was looking at the surveillance recordings ("One of these things is not like the other…"—ah, Sesame Street, good times). And don't get all pissy with me about having Love be the crazy one. Like Smart Raven said in her plot-saving theory for this chapter, the duplicates are all getting more unstable, and thus are becoming further entrenched in the particular personality trait they exemplify. So ask yourself, is someone guided by love and love alone really going to act all that sane? To Love, at this point her whole world consists of just her and Beast Boy; everyone else is just an obstacle to get rid of. She has no remorse for what she has done because, in her warped view, the Ravens she killed didn't matter, or at worst they were allies of the real Raven, who represents the ultimate obstacle for Love. But enough of the abnormal psychology! I don't even know what I'm talking about—I've never taken a psychology course in my life!

Yeah, so apologies to fans of the Raven/Beast Boy pairing. I didn't mean to trick you guys into thinking this was a Raven/Beast Boy story or anything, but I couldn't very well have just given away the plot right off the bat, now could I have? The relationship is there to some extent, but this is most definitely _not_ a fluff story—there's nothing wrong with it, but fluff just isn't what I want to write. So, sorry, but if you want to see Beast Boy get to second base or something, read another story, 'cause it ain't happenin' in this one. Or does being in bed with Love count as second base? He didn't get her bra off, but that might be third…shit, I hate baseball innuendo. I always forget which base is which. That, and the question of what would count as a grand slam just boggles my mind. And what the hell would a ground rule double be?

I would like to note that while it might look like I'm not always consistent with whether the duplicates are just physical representations of Raven's emotions or separate entities that just tend strongly towards one or another of them, any discrepancies you might see are just due to the characters' understandings of the situation. Also, the duplicates themselves have all the particular memories of the emotions they tend towards. That applies in this case, when Love refers to herself being bullied inside Raven's mind. Love wasn't pulled out of Raven's head, but she has all the memories of Raven's in-head version of Love up to when the duplication occurred. So, yeah, take that, nit-pickers.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: Refer to the last bit of this Author's Note for some stuff about where the emotions come from, and then go to when they die. Basically, the duplication ray made a whole bunch of complete, separate Ravens that are just a bit unstable (you would be too, if you were composed of random particles stuck together in some highly unlikely process that probably involves ungodly amounts of quantum mechanics). Because they are unstable, both physically and mentally, they have all tended towards one particular part of their personalities (which, if properly balanced, would be exactly like the original Raven's). Thus, the duplicates all take on the role of one of Raven's emotions, even though they aren't those emotions just dragged out of her head. So, Raven isn't missing any of her emotions, and theoretically all the emotions are at least present in all the duplicates. I guess I kind of just left this as one of Smart Raven's crackpot (yet well thought out) theories, so I understand the confusion. Smart kind of acts like my neat little plot-saving device, coming up with theories that explain the scads of plot holes that I've been perpetrating. She's really quite handy. Oh, and here's the solution to one bit of suspense, and hopefully another bit to take its place. Ha ha!

stella-s55: Like I said to CloudsHalo, here's who the killer is, but what happens next? Will Love succeed in her mad scheme? Will Beast Boy break free? Will Sad admit to her secret passion for stockcar racing? Will Robin and Starfire discover the true meaning of Christmas, and then make out shamelessly? And what will happen when Batman's evil Mexican twin comes to the wedding in his place? Oh, the suspense!


	8. Confrontation

(Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. Just to let you know.)

_-CHAPTER EIGHT-_

It was late, and the halls of Titans Tower were dark. Sad Raven wandered about aimlessly, sniffling to herself, lost in her usual fog of depression. Darkness spread towards her from the shadows…

"Awww, what's the matter, dear?" said a disembodied voice. "All alone?"

Sad squeaked in fright and turned to look in the direction the voice had come from. Love stepped out of the shadows and into the dim moonlight from a nearby window, although the shadows seemed to move ahead of her. They seemed to be reaching out towards Sad, and she thought she saw shapes from her darkest nightmares swirling inside them. She whimpered and took a few small steps away from Love.

"Well? Answer me," said Love. She had a smile on her face, but her voice was cold. "Did your friends leave you out here all alone?"

"They don't like me," said Sad, and sniffled.

"Awww, you poor dear, what happened?" Love asked. All trace of warmth drained away from her smile as she continued. "Did your constant whining finally get to them? Did they cast you out here for the mean old killer to take tare of you?"

"They don't like me," Sad repeated. "That's why they're using me as…"

"As what, my dear?" Love interrupted, advancing slowly towards Sad.

"…bait," said Sad.

"Titans! Now!"

Love spun to see Robin, Starfire, and Smart Raven spring out of the darkness. She turned again, only to see Cyborg, Raven, Happy Raven, and Brave Raven appear behind her.

"I'm sorry…" whispered Sad as she hid behind Robin.

"You're surrounded, Love," said Robin. "Give up and we'll go easy on you."

Love screamed with rage and frustration and leapt towards the nearest wall. A glowing black portal opened up to swallow her, but Robin acted quickly—he threw a small device onto the sole of one of her shoes, where it stuck. The tracking device blinked to show that it had activated, and then Love disappeared completely into the portal.

"Cyborg! Can you track her?" Robin asked, turning to his mechanical friend.

"Gimme a second," said Cyborg. He checked his forearm display. "Nothing yet…wait! I have the signal! She's…still in the Tower?" The others looked at each other in shock. They hadn't expected her to be that close.

"Where?" demanded Robin. Cyborg touched a few buttons on his display, bringing up what looked like a blueprint of Titans Tower. A red light blinked at the bottom.

"She's in the basement," he said. "Looks like she's hiding in amongst the generators."

"Right," said Robin, grim determination in his voice. "Let's move."

**ooo**

The door to the basement exploded inwards in a cloud of smoke. Raven and Brave slipped into the room and took up defensive positions to either side of the doorway. Starfire sped between them and further out into the dark basement, lighting the way with a starbolt held in each hand.

"The way appears to be of the clear," she said. Starfire was nervous, and her grammar appeared to be suffering for it.

The other Titans quickly filed into the room and made their way down the metal gantry to the basement floor, Raven and Brave taking the rear after everyone else had moved past them. Cyborg checked his forearm display.

"It looks like she's just ahead, right over there," he said, pointing at the bank of power generators on the far side of the room. The Titans made their way towards the gigantic machines. Robin shivered. He had never noticed how much the basement of Titans Tower looked like Slade's hideout before, but now the similarities seemed quite striking.

As the Titans came closer to the generators, they could see some dim light emanating from behind one of them. Moving still closer, they were soon able to hear a faint voice.

"…think they might be coming, my love, so we must flee for now. But don't worry, I will finish what I started, and then…"

The Titans rounded the corner of the generator, and saw Love frantically trying to undo Beast Boy's restraints while holding him still with her telekinesis. As she removed the last of the metal bands, Beast Boy caught sight of the Titans and gave a muffled cry—his mouth was covered by some kind of glowing black telekinetic gag. Love turned to see the Titans charging at her.

"No!" she cried, and tried to open another portal, but the other Ravens blocked her attempts with their own powers. The Titans surrounded Love, watching her every move to make sure she did not escape. Beast Boy continued to fight Love's telekinetic hold on him.

"Stop _struggling!_" Love shouted at him, and her mental grip tightened in her frustration. Beast Boy gasped and nearly blacked out from the pain.

"Let him go, ya big meany!" said Happy, launching a bolt of black energy at Love. It hit her square in the stomach, and she grunted in pain and dropped to one knee. Her control wavered for a moment, and Beast Boy was flung aside to land on the floor some distance away, where he lay without moving.

"Raven, could you check to make sure he's…" Robin began, but Smart Raven interrupted him.

"He will be fine," she said. "He is merely unconscious. We must focus on the task at hand."

Happy Raven approached Love, who was still down on one knee with her head bowed. Love was breathing heavily.

"Come on, Love," Happy said. "Let's not fight about this. There must be some reason why you're doing this, so maybe if we just talk about it things will turn out okay."

"Things will never be okay," said Love. Her head snapped up and she stared at Happy with nothing but hatred in her eyes. "Things will never be okay until you're all _dead!_"

Black energy exploded out of Love, and focused on Happy for only an instant. Happy shrieked in pain as she was torn apart, and then her body was launched backwards and slammed against one of the generators.

"Happy! No!" screamed Brave. "You killed Pinky! You _bitch!_"

Brave launched herself at Love, howling with rage, but a second wave of darkness erupted from the black-clad duplicate, tearing Brave apart as well—this time, there wasn't even a body left to throw anywhere. Love laughed.

"Foolish, foolish Brave!" she said, gloating. "She always was so very predictable! I just had to kill one of you, and she threw herself in head first without thinking—such an easy kill."

"Titans! _GO!_" shouted Robin, and the Titans attacked simultaneously. Love screamed, and another wave of power washed over them, blocking their attacks and throwing them all backwards. The creaking of metal under stress sounded from above them.

"Robin! We must end this quickly!" Smart Raven said. "Love's power is out of control, and she might bring down the whole building around us!" As if to drive her point home, more metallic creaking came from above. Smart dodged a chunk of metal that Love hurled at her.

"We have to…" she began, but then abruptly stopped. She stared in shock at a thick tendril of blackness that had speared her through the chest. Smart coughed blood and dropped to her knees.

"The thrown objects…a feint? Oh, dear…" she whispered, just before the dark energy tore her apart completely.

"No! Titans! Regroup! We've got to…" Robin called, but he was interrupted by a thick wall of blackness slamming down on top of him. Love had pinned him and the other Titans, and was now advancing slowly towards Raven. Raven struggled against Love's power, but could find no leverage to break her hold.

"If you hurt my friends, I swear it'll be the last thing you ever do," she said. Love laughed.

"Hurt your friends, Raven? Oh, I would never do that," Love said with a mocking tone. "I love your friends just the same as you do. I would never hurt them. I only plan to kill _you_."

Raven stared at her in shock, but said nothing.

"Well, actually my plan was to kill off all the duplicates first, and only _then_ come for you, dear Raven, but it looks like that insipid little twit Sad has fled," Love continued, her face contorted in an evil grin. "Oh, well, I'll hunt her down later. I'll get rid of you now, while I have you here."

"Why?" asked Raven.

"Because you don't deserve your life!" snarled Love. "You are surrounded by wonderful friends, in a wonderful home, and what do you do? You lock yourself away in that ghastly dark room of yours! _I_ could make far better use of your life than _you_ ever could! And I will! Once you're gone, I will be the only Raven left—I will _be_ you!"

"My friends would never accept you," spat Raven. Love looked around at the other Titans, all struggling under her telekinetic hold.

"Perhaps not, at first," she admitted. "But they will soon see that I am a much better friend than you ever were. Beast Boy already has!"

"Oh, yeah?" sneered Raven. "Then why did you have to restrain him?"

"Shut up! It was for his own good!" shrieked Love. She looked like she had lost control for a moment, but quickly calmed herself. She smirked.

"Ah, I see," Love said. "Trying to get me to lose control so I would let go of you and your friends, are you? Well, enough of this."

Love raised her hand, glowing black energy playing around it, and prepared to strike.

"This ends _now_."

**ooo**

Sad was hiding. She was good at hiding. She hadn't gone far, though, since she also felt safer when near her friends. She was cowering in the shadow cast by one of the massive generators, watching the fight.

Things were not going well. The Titans, aside from Beast Boy, were all still conscious, but held down by what looked like glowing black blankets, and Love was now standing over Raven, preparing to kill her. Sad didn't want Raven to die. She knew that it would be her that Love came after next.

_But what can I do?_ Sad thought. _Love killed Brave, and Brave was much stronger than I am. I'm weak. I can't do anything._ She sighed.

_Besides, they don't like me anyways. Even if I did fight Love, they still wouldn't like me, and I would just end up dead, like Brave. And Happy. And Smart, and…_ Sad sobbed, remembering all the others that Love had already killed.

But then she heard a new voice in her head, one that she had never heard before. It said: _Maybe you're right. Maybe they wouldn't like you even if you stood up to Love. But how could you live with yourself if you just ran away?_

Sad considered this for a moment.

_Yes,_ she thought,_ the reason they don't like me is because I'm a coward. If I run away now, I'll never be anything but a coward._ Sad made a decision and stood up.

_Even if I can't keep Love from killing Raven, and even if they still don't like me even if I do, maybe, just maybe, if I stand up to Love…_

Sad started running towards Love, who was now poised to deliver the killing blow to Raven.

…_maybe I can finally start liking myself…_

**ooo**

Love stood over Raven triumphantly, pure black power swirling around her hand.

"Goodbye, Raven," she said. She pointed her hand at her captive, released the spell she had been holding inside, and…

…and Sad crashed into her, seemingly out of nowhere. Love screamed, and her concentration was broken. The spell, which had been held in control by the power of her will alone, went wild. It vented its power in all directions at once, creating an explosion of blackness that spread throughout the basement. Unnatural winds howled out away from the source of the power, where Love and Sad struggled. They were surrounded by an intense light that seemed impossible in the darkness caused by the spell. Finally, the power of the spell was cut off, and Sad Raven was flung, lifeless, back into the shadows cast by the generators.

Love rose unsteadily to her feet. Her dress was torn in several places, and she had cuts and bruises all over where the spell had turned against her.

"Well, that was annoying," she said. "But now that I don't have to worry about any more duplicates, I have you all to myself, Raven."

"Not exactly," said a voice from behind her. Love turned. Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire were standing behind her—when Love's concentration had been broken by Sad's unexpected attack, she had lost control of their restraints as well as the spell. She backed away from them, only to bump into Raven. Love's eyes widened in fright, and she fell away from her.

"No!" Love shrieked. "You won't win! I can still…" She stopped. She had tried to telekinetically force the Titans away from her, but it hadn't worked. She concentrated and extended her hand.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Love screamed, but nothing happened. She was spent, her powers worn out. She sobbed.

"No…I was so close…" Love whispered to herself as the Titans closed in around her. "I was…"

There was another loud creak from above, then a snapping sound, and a huge shadow detached from the high ceiling of the basement. One of the massive pieces of machinery attached to the ceiling had been loosened by the waves of power Love had unleashed, and had just snapped the last cable that had been holding it in place. It plummeted towards Beast Boy, who was only now beginning to come to.

"_NO!_" screamed Love, and ran towards him, breaking through the Titans before they could react.

Beast Boy, who had just gotten up onto his hands and knees, found himself shoved roughly away, and then a thunderous boom nearly deafened him as the massive piece of machinery slammed into the floor behind him. He looked up to see the other Titans running towards him.

"Beast Boy! Are you okay?" asked Robin.

"Yeah, man, that was pretty close!" said Cyborg.

"Ugh…yeah, I think I'm fine," said Beast Boy, rubbing his head. "What the heck just happened?"

"Friend Raven's doppelganger of Love had been defeated, but when the large machine dropped from above she broke free from us and managed to push you to safety!" said Starfire. "But where is she? I do not see her."

Raven pointed. The others turned to look, and gasped.

Love was lying on the ground, her legs and lower torso caught under the massive piece of metal. Blood dribbled from her mouth and nose.

"Beast Boy…" she said, little more than a whisper. Beast Boy knelt down next to her, and she smiled weakly. Her violet eyes were half closed, as though she was very tired, and tears were running down her cheeks.

"I…I love you, Beast Boy," Love said. "Don't ever…let her…tell you different…"

Love's eyes closed completely, and her last breath came out with a sigh.

_-END CHAPTER EIGHT-_

**Author's Note:** I almost broke down a few times while writing this. I had already known going in that Love was going to sacrifice herself to save Beast Boy, so that didn't affect me so much, but Sad's inner monologue was new—it just popped into my head, and I wasn't exactly ready for it. Again, I'll apologize to the Raven/Beast Boy pairing fans out there who were hoping to see some Raven/Beast Boy action, or at least some more Love/Beast Boy action. Pretty much every "Raven's Emotions" story I've seen includes that kind of fluff, though, usually with Raven discovering her love for Beast Boy by the end after having to deal with all her crazy emotions. That's all well and good, but it's not what I wanted to do, partially because I wanted to buck the trend, but also because I think that tragedy is easily the most moving genre out there. I love the old Greek stuff like _Oedipus Rex_, which is _incredibly_ disturbing, and Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ is easily my favourite play ever, although I will admit that I'm not much of a theatre buff. I suppose I could have labeled this story as being in the tragedy genre, but I think that that would have ruined the story. Besides, a little disappointment will do you good.

Some of the more observant of you might have noticed that I broke my cardinal rule regarding fight scenes in this chapter, which is "Stay away from the 'Evil Raven Stick Everybody' scenarios". The difference between the fight between the Titans and Love in this chapter and the fight between the Titans and Anger in Chapter Four is that I had a game plan this time. I had a very clear idea of how this fight was going to go, even down to the order in which the remaining duplicates would die, whereas in Chapter Four I only knew that Angry had to be powerful, but that she had to be defeated anyway. That made things _much_ easier. So my recommendation to people writing fight and action sequences is this: fights with lots of participants (not just all on one side) can be complicated and awkward to write, but having a plan always helps. Anyway, the next chapter is the last one, and then I'll do that Director's cut thing I've been babbling about.

Oh, and when I'm describing the basement, I see it as it appeared in Fear Itself, although maybe a little bit more spacious.

**To My Reviewers:**

CloudsHalo: Yeah, the whole rationalization of Raven's emotions being separate but not being actually pulled from her mind is a bit of a stretch on my part. I think I might have made it a bit too complicated, but it doesn't really work otherwise. I'm glad I was able to make you doubt your suspicions that Love was the killer, even for a little bit.

stella-s55: Does this answer your question about what happens to Beast Boy? Because if it doesn't, well…uhhh…hmm. It really does, doesn't it? Nevermind.

Spazzfire: Yeah, there's really no stopping Love when she's on a tear. Aside from, you know, dropping heavy objects on her. Ooh, that was tasteless of me. Oh, well, I'm too lazy to delete it. Enjoy!

SnowwhiteandtheSevenDragons: Beast Boy fleeing in terror is always good for a laugh. Anyone other than me fleeing in terror is good for a laugh, really. I'll have to put more terror in my next couple of stories. Ha ha! Terror.


	9. Regrets

(Disclaimer: You know how people always say stuff about how they don't own the Titans and that things would be different if they did? Well, I don't own the Titans, but if I did I wouldn't change a damn thing.)

_-CHAPTER NINE-_

Things had finally returned to normal in Titans Tower. The duplicates were gone; the Titans had held an informal little ceremony where they buried their multicoloured clothes, which were all that remained of them. They each got their own little headstones. It reminded Beast Boy of the ceremony they had held at Terra's statue, and he had to try very hard to keep himself from crying. He failed.

That had been almost a week ago. The damage to the basement had been repaired, and it was as if the whole thing had never even happened. The Titans had all returned to their usual business, with only two exceptions: Raven was even quieter than normal, and Beast Boy could sometimes be seen lost in thought, a state that was rare for him. The others decided that it was none of their business, though, and left them alone (although Starfire had required some convincing).

Beast Boy was lying on his bed, just thinking, when he heard a knock at his door. He got up, being careful not to bump his head on the top bunk of the bunk bed, and crossed his room to open the door. Raven was standing in the hall outside his room, looking uncomfortable.

"Beast Boy? Can I talk to you?" she said.

"Uhhh…sure, Raven. What do you want to talk about?" Beast Boy asked. Raven fidgeted a bit—it was disconcerting seeing her look so self-conscious.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what Love did to you," she said. "She was kind of a part of me, so I feel responsible for what she did."

"Oh, don't worry about it, she didn't really hurt me or anything," said Beast Boy. He laughed and rubbed the back of his head, but then suddenly became serious.

"Are you sorry for what _you_ did to _her?_" he asked. Raven was startled.

"What do you mean? She was crazy, Beast Boy," she said. "Love was unstable and dangerous. She had to be stopped. I just…"

"No, Raven," interrupted Beast Boy. "I mean before that. She told me how you treated her, or how you treat your love personality, or whatever. She told me how you yelled at her. I'm sure she was exaggerating a bit, but still…" He looked into Raven's eyes.

"So, are you sorry for _that?_" he asked.

Raven looked down at her feet. She hadn't expected this question, especially not from Beast Boy.

"I…I don't know," she said, and turned and walked back down the hall. Beast Boy just watched her go, then closed his door.

**ooo**

Raven floated cross-legged above her bed. Physically, she was meditating in her room, but her mind was wandering about Nevermore, her personal mindscape. Her emotions crowded around her, but she ignored them. She was looking for one in particular. She found her sitting by a small pond, skipping rocks distractedly. Her violet hair was long, and she wore a white dress.

Raven cleared her throat, and Love looked up at her.

"We need to talk," Raven said.

_-FIN-_

**Author's Note:** That was a hell of a lot shorter than I thought it would be, but then it's mostly just a wrap-up anyways. So that's it! Duplomatic is over! Done! Finito! Owarimashita! So, what did you think? I know it was only nine chapters, while some people's stories go for well over fifteen, but hey, this is my first serious one. Plus, I didn't want to give you guys a bunch of fiddly little chapters, nor did I want to spread the story out over more long ones. I'm a big fan of nice, self-contained stories that wrap themselves up nicely, without going through lots and lots of useless filler to make the story look bigger, and that's what I wanted to achieve. Also, this story is pretty focused, centering mainly on the relationship between Raven and Love, so there wasn't a whole lot in the way of distraction and side-plot I could throw at you.

Anyway, I will post one more "chapter" here. You probably recall me babbling about a Director's Cut chapter in the past few Author's Notes, and that's what will be next. It will include an alternate ending, as well as a whole bunch of my notes on how I dealt with the characters, the problems I encountered, the ideas I rejected, and so on. I'll put the alternate ending first, so if you aren't interested in all the other crap you won't have to search through it. I think the other stuff might be interesting for other aspiring writer's though, since it will show you a bit of my writing process. At the very least it will give you some idea of what the hell I've been thinking. It might be hella long, too, so it'll make up for this short chapter. I'll also post a short humour one-shot I have done, either just before or just after the Director's Cut for Duplomatic, but it'll be under its own title (Booby Trap). Now, I have to try to figure out what I'll be writing next…to the Bag Cave!

**To My Reviewers:**

blackraven2000: Meh. I figured it might be obvious to some people, but then, hey, I figured out Red X was Robin in Masks after only the Titans' first fight with him, and that was _professionally written_. I'm not a mystery writer. I'm not really a fiction writer for that matter—as I say in my profile, I'm an essayist mostly. But anyway, I'm glad you think it was good other than that obvious bit.

Nevermore Forevermore: Thanks! I'll have to get working on something else soon. I have a few other ideas for some serious stories, and some ideas for filler humour stuff, but nothing I really _want_ to do, in the same way I wanted to do this story. Oh, well.

CloudsHalo: Yeah, Sad is cool. And, incidentally, also sad. That little slouch of hers is sex-ay! Ha ha ha! Slouch. As for her little out of character inner monologue, I figure it's okay since she's not _just _Sad, she's a duplicate of Raven that tends heavily towards Sad. Although I didn't say so explicitly, I kind of imagine that the new little voice was the part of her that was Brave. I left it open to interpretation, though. Looking over the end of Chapter 8, it does seem a bit anti-climactic, but anti-climactic is avante-garde, right? Right? No, I didn't think so. Seriously, though, I see the problem, but I have no real idea as to how to fix it while still keeping all the elements I want. Oh, well. I'll have to look out for it in the future.

Nightwish13: Yeah, Raven can still love. At least, to the extent she's always been able to love, which, admittedly, might not be much. The duplicates weren't just her emotions pulled out of her head, they were separate entities on their own that just tended towards certain aspects of the original Raven's personality. I _really_ should have made that simpler. My story is Kool? As in Kool-Aid? Awesome. I gotta find me a brick wall to smash through so I can say "Ohhh yeeeaaaahhhh!" God damn, but that's an old commercial. I'm dating myself here.


	10. Duplomatic: Director's Cut

(Disclaimer: 1 d0n'7 PWNZOR teh 733n 7174n5. Trans: I don't own the Teen Titans. Just because I can't stand 1337-speak, that doesn't mean I don't know it.)

_-Duplomatic: Director's Cut-_

**Author's Note:** Okay, here's the alternate ending I considered. It's basically just the real Chapter Nine over again, with only the very end different. It's a bit sadder, which is why I stayed away from it, but it was still something that I very much considered actually putting in. Here goes:

Things had finally returned to normal in Titans Tower. The duplicates were gone; the Titans had held an informal little ceremony where they buried their multicoloured clothes, which were all that remained of them. They each got their own little headstones. It reminded Beast Boy of the ceremony they had held at Terra's statue, and he had to try very hard to keep himself from crying. He failed.

That had been almost a week ago. The damage to the basement had been repaired, and it was as if the whole thing had never even happened. The Titans had all returned to their usual business, with only two exceptions: Raven was even quieter than normal, and Beast Boy could sometimes be seen lost in thought, a state that was rare for him. The others decided that it was none of their business, though, and left them alone (although Starfire had required some convincing).

Beast Boy was lying on his bed, just thinking, when he heard a knock at his door. He got up, being careful not to bump his head on the top bunk of the bunk bed, and crossed his room to open the door. Raven was standing in the hall outside his room, looking uncomfortable.

"Beast Boy? Can I talk to you?" she said.

"Uhhh…sure, Raven. What do you want to talk about?" Beast Boy asked. Raven fidgeted a bit—it was disconcerting seeing her look so self-conscious.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what Love did to you," she said. "She was kind of a part of me, so I feel responsible for what she did."

"Oh, don't worry about it, she didn't really hurt me or anything," said Beast Boy. He laughed and rubbed the back of his head, but then suddenly became serious.

"Are you sorry for what _you_ did to _her?_" he asked. Raven was startled.

"What do you mean? She was crazy, Beast Boy," she said. "Love was unstable and dangerous. She had to be stopped. I just…"

"No, Raven," interrupted Beast Boy. "I mean before that. She told me how you treated her, or how you treat your love personality, or whatever. She told me how you yelled at her. I'm sure she was exaggerating a bit, but still…" He looked into Raven's eyes.

"So, are you sorry for _that?_" he asked.

Raven looked down at her feet. She looked embarrassed, but said nothing. Beast Boy sighed.

"Yeah, you know what? That was kind of a stupid question. Just forget about it," he said, and closed his door.

Raven turned away and walked back down the hall. She stopped just outside of her room, and looked back at Beast Boy's door. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

_Oh, Beast Boy. I'm so sorry,_ she thought. _I'm sorry, but I can never really be there for you._

As if to prove her point, the fluorescent bulb overhead turned black for an instant before it exploded, her powers inadvertently triggered by her emotion. Raven stifled her tears and stepped into her room to meditate.

_-FIN-_

**Author's Note:** Yeah, so there you have it. An alternate ending. If you like this one better than the one I really put in, that's cool, but personally I prefer the one I used (obviously). Anyway, what follows is a bunch of Author's Note type stuff with my thoughts on the characters, Raven/Beast Boy relationships, the whole Trigon issue, and some of the problems and rejected ideas that were part of my writing process, as well as what exactly my writing process was (I think I'll start with that). If you aren't interested in reading that, then you don't have to, but I think it might be interesting for other aspiring writers—I know I'd like to hear what kinds of things other people do for writing, and what thought went into putting their stories together. Oh, and to any admins or whatever that might read this, if this is too far from being a story post, just let me know and I will gladly take it down.

**My Writing Process:** To start, I'll tell you what my basic writing process was for Duplomatic. I've never written anything like this before—all I've ever really written before is short humour stuff like my spoof of the ending to Apprentice Pt. 1, some of it in script format, some not. Those kinds of pieces I can just write on the fly, since they're short and usually revolve around only one particular idea. However, to do a connected story in chapter format, even a relatively short one like Duplomatic, would require that I have a game plan so that I wouldn't accidentally write myself into a corner I couldn't get out of. So, I came up with one. Before even starting to type, I wrote down ideas on a piece of paper, thought about stuff, decided I liked some ideas better than others, and so on. Even before that, I was thinking about the kind of situations I was interested in portraying, not necessarily as part of a story I would write, but kind of just daydreaming. Anyways, this process of daydreaming situations, getting ideas down on paper, and deciding which ideas I liked and would keep lasted for a couple of weeks (on the outside) before I even started writing. In that time, the story went from some kind of big-ass fight against the evil sides of Raven's personality, including a duplicate dedicated to Evil that could 'infect' the other ones, turning them into dark versions of the emotion they represent (so Love might have become Lust, Smart might have become Ruthless, and so on), to a much less epic story that focuses on the relationship between Raven and Love. I also played with ideas like having Evil get her hands on the duplication ray and using it to make an army of sub-duplicates of herself and Angry, like Hatred, Rage, and so on, but I rejected that. Good thing, too, since that kind of emotion-splitting happens in "Seven Years' Bad Luck in One Day" by Demigod, a story which I only read when I was already most of the way done writing Duplomatic, and I don't want to go around ripping off other people's ideas, even without knowing it.

So, anyway, after solidifying what ideas I would be putting in the story, I began planning out my chapters. On another sheet of paper (several, actually), I wrote out the planned names for each chapter, then wrote a summary of what would happen in that chapter, including descriptions of any particular parts I wanted to make sure I would remember to put in. It was still pretty vague, but it got across what I wanted to do in each chapter, and kept me from going way off-topic. In writing the chapter summaries, I cut out a few more ideas, and added others in, in a few places. I did that while actually writing, too—basically, my whole process was fairly dynamic, with revision going on throughout. Anyway, once the chapter summaries were done and I had my game plan, I actually started writing.

The writing itself came fairly naturally most of the time. I used to read an awful lot as a kid (I don't so much anymore, though, I don't know why), so I've been exposed to a lot of good writing styles, and I just tried to use the stuff I liked the most. If the writing ever looked too unfocused, or contrived, or even just sounded wrong when I recited it in my head, I would change it. A lot of that is still left, but I'm pretty happy with what I wrote. It is, after all, my first serious piece of fiction. Since I only had basic chapter summaries to work with, I had a lot of room to maneuver, especially with respect to specific dialogue. I tried to keep all dialogue as much in character as possible. When I needed to have someone say something in particular, I would think "Okay, now who does that sound like?" then have the appropriate character say it. What really helped was watching a lot of reruns of the TV show—it even helped give me some new ideas to put in that just kind of fell out of the character interactions on their own. The same kind of thing applies to which character did what. If I ever needed something to be done, but didn't know who should do it, I would ask "Which character does this action fit with most?" and then go from there. Of course, all this depends largely on my interpretations of the characters, but whatever. From some of the reviews I've gotten, it looks like people agree with my interpretations of them, so I feel reasonably confident about that.

I also tried to keep my writing consistent, while still being sensitive to the situations being portrayed. For instance, my "omnipotent narration" bits often have some small jokes in them (like the note on tea consumption in the Tower), and I tried to keep that fairly constant, but I also realized that even slightly humourous narration wouldn't fit right with the truly suspenseful or dramatic parts. Again, I fell back on my experience with writing styles that came from reading like a maniac as a kid in order to try to create the right mood.

Anyway, as for the particular problems and rejected ideas that were part of the process, I'll address them by chapter later.

**Comic vs. TV Show:** Let me just say this right off the bat: I have never, ever read any of the Teen Titans comic books. I've done a bit of research by going and checking character profiles and stuff online, and the only knowledge I have of the comic books comes from that. My main source of information about the Titans and their world is the TV show. So, my interpretations of the characters and the background issues surrounding those characters (e.g. Trigon) are influenced virtually exclusively by how they are portrayed in the show.

**On the Characters:**

Robin: I tried to follow the pattern that the show establishes for Robin—he's intelligent, highly skilled, focused to the point of obsession, and very much the apprentice of the Batman. I didn't go into his character in too much detail, and mostly just used him as the leader figure in combat and the main detective when the Titans are confronted with the murders.

Cyborg: Again, I didn't go into much detail with Cyborg's character—even less than for Starfire and Robin, actually—and basically just used what I see in the show. He's immature at times, so he's a nice companion for Beast Boy, but he's also capable of fulfilling the wise older brother role for the Titans. He's either the calm voice of reason or one of the ones fighting in disputes.

Starfire: Like I said in one of my past Author's Notes, I do not think of Starfire as being dumb. She is just a bit naïve, and her grasp of English is a bit too much restricted to the official rules of grammar and strict dictionary meanings of words, so she often sounds a bit odd when she talks, and misunderstands most slang. The thing you really have to realize is that, as natural speakers of any language, we have an almost instinctive understanding of what _sounds_ right, and we also _never_ follow the rules exactly in everyday speech. For instance, I'm taking a Japanese language course right now, but the Japanese I'm learning would sound odd to any natural speaker of Japanese, since I'm basically learning how to speak Japanese like a fifteen-year-old girl ("Ohayoo gozaimasu!" eyes closed, big smile, and creepy little wave ). If I ever went to Japan and tried to speak Japanese, I'd probably sound like a fruit loop. Anyway, as I was saying, I don't think of Starfire as being dumb. I _do_ think of her as cheerful, bubbly, enthusiastic, perpetually curious, and quite empathetic. The last two are the reasons why Starfire wanted to try to get to know Angry Raven better, even after she had attacked her.

Beast Boy: He's the joker of the team, obviously, but like Starfire, I don't think he's stupid. He obviously has loads of creativity, at the very least, if he's coming up with the pranks he plays on the other Titans. I think that after the events with Terra, he's much more given towards introspection—that wounded him, and it might have got him doubting if his carefree life might just be a sham. He's also fairly sensitive, I think, despite his jokes—he's usually the one who understands his friends' emotions, even if he doesn't understand the situation in general (or his own emotions, for that matter). Your basic creative, artistic, extroverted people-person, really (I say artistic because, as he proved in Betrayal, he obviously has mad skillz wit' da glue gun), but with a definite introspective side. As such, he's a good foil for Raven, and a great friend to Cyborg, who probably wouldn't have nearly as much fun without him.

Raven: A complementary character to Beast Boy in particular, although she and Starfire are also fairly complementary. Raven is introverted, introspective, and many other words that begin with intro. Since her powers can be hijacked by her emotions and go haywire, she has to keep those emotions in check at all times, but I don't think she's just classically repressed. I don't think she just locks her emotions away without even looking at them, since even her denial of her emotions can be dangerous, as seen in Fear Itself. Rather, I think that she has to be very aware of her emotions at all times in order to keep them under control. That's the main reason for dividing up her personality the way she does, in my opinion. She does it so that she can keep an eye on each of her emotions with her meditation. Also, if each of her emotions has its own distinct personality, they can vent in her mind without ever showing up in Raven herself (maybe—just a theory). However, I think that even that level of controlling her emotions, while not as bad as just locking them up without looking at them and throwing away the key, is still dangerous. It's still an artificial restraint that her emotions will naturally rail against, and if she ignores one particular emotion for some reason things might come to a boiling point, as they did with Love in this story. I kind of picture it like her meditation is spent kind of talking to her personalities so they don't go crazy and try to take over, and that she just never really paid much attention to Love (I'm pretty sure this interpretation of Raven's meditation has come up in lots of different "Raven's Emotions" stories, but I forget which ones in particular I've seen it in).

**The Trigon Issue (why I avoided it):** Trigon is obviously a big part of Raven's life, but he doesn't get any mention in Duplomatic, even with regards to Angry running around causing trouble, mainly because it's a huge issue that I don't want to have to deal with in my first serious piece of fiction. I've seen some basic plot summaries for how it goes in the Teen Titans comic books, and it seems to be that there's some kind of "seed" of Trigon in Raven (Angry?) that can turn her evil and so on. I wanted to avoid that, since the comic book seems to have taken it along this route: Raven turns evil, gets killed, gets brought back to life, turns evil again, gets killed again, turns evil while still dead _then_ gets brought back to life, learns the true meaning of Christmas and dies again, and so on. So, instead of there being some kind of evil Trigon seed inside Raven, I kind of interpreted things so that Trigon is a representation of everything bad about Raven, so Angry will often take his form (as in Nevermore), but otherwise just acts as a nasty little part of Raven. If Trigon needs Raven to open a gateway to our world so he can come and take over, as he very well might, I'm sure that Angry would happily act as a kind of spy in Raven's mind, but other than that, I make no connection between Raven's Angry side and Trigon.

**Raven/Beast Boy Relationships, and Terra:** I can certainly see how Rae/BB stuff is so popular. As I said before, they are complementary characters, being near polar opposites of each other. Let me expand on this. I'll use the terminology of yin and yang—although I don't know many details of Taoist philosophy, I have learned a bit about yin and yang from my kung fu instructor. Yin is equated with stillness, closedness, introversion, peace, emptiness, nothingness, simplicity, death, and so on. Yang is equated with action, openness, extroversion, violence, fullness, existence, complexity, life, and so on. I would be _very_ hesitant to equate yin and yang with evil and good, respectively, but I suppose that is a possibility. Anyway, it is easy to see that Raven fits with yin, and Beast Boy fits with yang, but I don't think it's that simple (it never is, really). Raven fits with yin because on the outside she's calm, introverted, thoughtful, and quiet, but on the inside she is very yang—there's a lot going on in her head, with all her emotions running around all over the place, and complex issues with her father, and so on. Similarly, while Beast Boy has a yang exterior, being extroverted, cheerful, and energetic, his internal world is yin, being very simple—he has a one-track mind, to put it another way. It is interesting to note that these clear divides between their internal and external worlds have become blurred in recent episodes, with the events regarding Terra shaking Beast Boy's carefree exterior, and the events of Spellbound shaking up Raven a bit (I mean, she even _hugged_ Beast Boy at the end). It is also interesting to note that they are both pained characters who just deal with that pain in different ways (Beast Boy by making jokes, Raven by withdrawing).

So, with Raven and Beast Boy being opposite, complementary characters, all one really has to do is apply the old "Opposites Attract" rule, and you have why Rae/BB relationships are so popular. However, I can't really see the two of them seriously getting together without some serious character development taking place. I think that while opposites do attract, it's the similarities that allow couples to stay together over the long term. So really, while Raven and Beast Boy might very well be attracted to each other, if some similarities between them don't crop up it looks like Beast Boy and Terra would be the more stable relationship. I know that many of you hate Terra with a fiery passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns, but you must admit that she and Beast Boy do have a lot in common. That said, I don't find Terra to be that interesting a character. She's basically just there to betray the Titans, and once she did that she lost all purpose for her existence in the show. What personality she does have is pretty much covered by the other Titans—she's running from her past, trying to control her powers, but hides her pain by being outwardly cheerful. She's kind of like a mix of Raven and Beast Boy, with a bit of Starfire thrown in for good measure, and blonde hair. She isn't really needed for anything other than the whole betrayal story arc. This non-interesting nature of Terra does mean that the Rae/BB relationships might be a bit more interesting, but I still don't think that it would work in the long run as things are now. So, to recap, I see Raven and Beast Boy as good friends, but barring some serious similarities that may come up, I don't see them actually getting together any time soon, although it's fun to play around with that kind of stuff. Oh, and Raven would have to lose her powers or something before they could really get it on.

**On the Relationship Between Raven and Love:** The main point of interaction between Raven and Love was in their little "talk" in Chapter Five, where Love blew up at Raven. I suppose that part of the venom present in Love's verbal attack on Raven stems partially from my own opinions of myself. I identify most with Raven out of all the Teen Titans (far and away), and not just because I'm a teenaged half-demon who can't feel emotion for fear of releasing my evil father upon the world…well, actually not for that reason at all. I identify with Raven because I have approximately the same social tendencies that she does, that is, even when living together with a relatively small group of people, I find it hard to really make friends. I spend nearly all of my time in my room, although I tend to sleep more often than read these days. However, I recognize that I can't just sit around and expect a network of friendships to spontaneously form around me. I know that if I want friends I have to go out in the world and make things happen, but I often find myself paralyzed by insecurities about what people will think of me, so more often than not I don't take advantage of even the few chances at socializing that do come my way. This leaves me kicking myself, and wishing I would just smarten up already. That's where Love's aggression towards Raven is coming from in terms of me, the writer. I hope that wasn't too angsty or anything, and I'm not looking for sympathy, I just think it's important for other aspiring writers to know where people draw their inspiration from. Bring on the _Sturm undt Drang_, baby! (Bad German, I know, but whatever.)

**Problems and Rejected Ideas:** I'll go through them by chapter.

1. Nothing much here, everything that I wanted to put in went in. The characters just interacted so well that I hardly had to do anything.

2. Problems: coming up with details about Multiple Gary, like his costume, background, etc. (anything beyond "villain with a duplication ray"); writing the action sequence; figuring out some way to get rid of the clones that allowed Raven's clones to survive (ordering the events, workings of the Duplomatic, etc.)

Rejected Ideas: the army of Garys being immediately seen looting or something

3. Problems: justifying the clone that would become Angry being put in Starfire's room, referring to each Raven uniquely without driving myself crazy

Rejected Ideas: other Ravens (Pride, Punk and Emo actually showing up, Inner Child, Hope, Good and Evil, Hatred, etc.); some interaction between the Ravens was scrapped (like Spiritual suggesting feng shui for the living room)

4. Problems: writing the action sequence, assigning the Titans and Ravens into amusing search teams

Rejected Ideas: more Angry Raven stuff was originally intended, but it kind of spilled over into the next chapter; alternate chapter title—Paint the Town Red

5. Problems: PG-13 paranoia, why Angry Raven can't escape

Rejected Ideas: none

6. Problems: BIG plot hole—duplicates' bodies are supposed to disappear, including their clothes (which were duplicated along with them), but Smart Raven's crackpot theories save the day; trying desperately not to make the killer's identity obvious

Rejected Ideas: split scene where Starfire takes tea to Angry, have her go to the wrong cell first (while the killer goes to the right one…), switch back and forth between Starfire and Angry (i.e. have Starfire open the hatch thingy, then switch to Angry's POV of the hatch on her door open, have Angry ask who's there, then switch to Starfire not seeing anyone in the cell because she's at the wrong one…oh no!), I decided that while this might add suspense (like in horror movies), it would break up the scene way too much

7. Problems: trying to make the announcement that Love was the killer all dramatic and stuff

Rejected Ideas: alternate chapter title—And the Killer is…

8. Problems: getting Beast Boy out of his restraints so he could be pushed out of the way of the falling chunk of machinery by Love

Rejected Ideas: none

9. Problems: none

Rejected Ideas: see the alternate ending above; alternate chapter title—Denouement

Okay, so that's everything, I think. Later!

**To My Reviewers:** Thanks to everyone who has reviewed!

Regrem Erutaerc: Sorry, but I consider this story complete. I might have my next serious one kind of take place after this has all happened, but it probably won't focus on Raven and Beast Boy so much (although I do like their character interaction—note, not necessarily romantic pairing, as I said above!). As for it being cruel, well, I could have had everyone die at the end or something. I mean, _Hamlet_ is my favourite play, after all ("And now you're dead! And now _you're_ dead! And you, and you, and you! And now _I'm_ dead, too!" thump ). I consider Raven to be a bit of a tragic character, at least until she deals with Trigon with some kind of finality (if she ever does), so don't expect any deliriously happy endings for her just yet. I _am_ considering doing an "After Trigon is Dead" story sometime, though.

Blackbird: Thanks! I'm glad I was able to drag you into the story with the detective work. That's probably one of the best compliments anyone could give me on my writing. As for the equations, I didn't want Smart Raven to do _everything_ in this story—she was already saving my sorry ass from all the plot holes I let slip. Those damn non-dissapearing cloaks!

Mephisto2022: Yet another call to not let it end like this, eh? I actually think it has a positive ending, now that I think about it: Raven finally acknowledges her Love side, which she had been neglecting. It's not really a Raven/Beast Boy thing; it's more that Raven needs to get in touch with her emotions, even if she can't express them in an uncontrolled way. And who knows? Maybe now that Raven has acknowledged her Love side she'll tackle-glomp Beast Boy next time she sees him. Cue the bass-heavy 70s-style music! Rated R, for raunchy! Meh, probably not.

CloudsHalo: Okay, that was a joke, man. Don't take all I say seriously. Take some of it seriously, but only the stuff that I want you to take seriously. How will you know which is which? The Shadow knows! Muwahahahahaaa! Yeah, so ask him. Also, random-ass crap like that just now is kind of an indicator of joke-ness. But on a more serious note: the biggest reason I didn't go into all the gore-spattered details of the murders was that I wanted to keep this within PG-13, and as I've said before, I'm not totally sure where the boundaries are. Also, I wasn't sure of my ability to describe them all without getting repetitive. And besides, I'm not such a big fan of the whole senseless violence thing—I didn't think it was necessary, so I didn't put it in. I suppose it would have gotten some shock value, but I wanted the character interactions to take the spotlight, for the most part.

SnowhiteandtheSevenDragons: Thanks! I'll probably be doing some short comedy stuff between serious stories, so don't get thrown off if the next thing I post isn't anything like Duplomatic. I do have some ideas for serious stories in the works, though, so it's only a matter of time!

Kohikari: I'm glad you liked it. I haven't seen any of Raven's other emotions gone into any detail in the show either, but I've seen a few of the other "Raven's Emotions" stories that are posted here, so naturally a few ideas filtered through from those (even though I tried to keep it as original as I could). And thanks for the vote of confidence with the whole "separate entities with tendencies" thing.


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